Uncle Sam wants to know: What can your country do for AI?

Policy around technological growth has become a big topic in the tech industry as the election approaches.

And laws regulating AI have become a political lightning rod, particularly in California, where industry leaders and some Democratic lawmakers have called on California Governor Gavin Newsom to veto SB 1047, a comprehensive AI bill.

At the same time, tech companies like OpenAI and Microsoft are looking to the Middle East for sources of funding and potentially cheaper electricity and infrastructure to build the massive new data centers they believe will be required for the next leap in AI capabilities.

National security officials are already concerned about US adversaries like China and Russia stealing secrets from American companies, whose security defenses are currently vulnerable to espionage from determined and well resourced nation states.

“Companies shouldn’t have to take on nation states all by themselves and we do think there’s a role for the federal government there. That’s part of what we need to hear from industry about,” Davidson said.

We’re going to be paying a lot more attention to the federal government’s role in AI development in the coming months and years.

If AI capacity keeps growing as the amount of compute available increases, two things are likely to happen. First, the energy requirements of AI will surpass what the US can currently handle. Second, the models will become so powerful that they will become strategic national security assets.

If the US can’t produce enough energy for the AI revolution, other countries are waiting in the wings. And if the development of the most advanced AI models happens outside the US, it will be much more difficult to guard the intellectual property from the prying eyes of America’s adversaries.

The risks might not materialize. But the challenge for policymakers is that there’s no time for a wait-and-see approach.

At the same time, policymakers have constituencies that would like to see the development of AI slow down. Some people are worried that AI will lead to job losses and wreak economic and social havoc. Some fear AI will become a threat to humanity.

So, how can the US simultaneously facilitate a politically unpopular acceleration of AI while protecting its citizens from all the potential downsides?

Let’s hope today’s request for comment will yield some smart responses from those in industry.

Left-leaning advocacy group Good Jobs First calls subsidies for AI datacenters a waste of taxpayer funds:

“In the upcoming year, we expect to see many more data center investments and more secretive subsidy deals, driven in large part by AI infrastructure investments. Data Bridge Market Research expects such spending, which includes data centers, to reach nearly $423 billion by 2029. Companies surely plan to ask for taxpayer support to offset those costs.

To go with those, we hope to see more local communities standing up to big tech companies and more public officials voicing skepticism about the promised economic benefits of these projects, and for residents to weigh in before any deals are finalized.”