When it comes to innovation, particularly in the tech sector, there is a strong mandate to innovate or become irrelevant. And when it comes to establishing the rules, you’re either at the table or on the menu.
China has already indicated that its vision for the future of artificial intelligence is very much about controlling the dissemination of information in profound ways. A recent proposal from the Cyberspace Administration of China says that AI content must reflect the country’s “core socialist values” while doing nothing to subvert the power of the state.
Europe, while more democratic than China, is taking a similarly centralized bureaucratic approach that restricts access to services and squelches innovation by tying developers up in legal knots.
The result of this regime will be fewer AI companies left to deal with the maze of EU regulation and the financial resources to pay the compliance costs. Such outcomes will undermine the progress of innovation in such a critical piece of technology.
The general perception in some quarters seems to be that China is winning the AI race. That reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of what’s happening, and why.
When it comes to the race for AI between the U.S. and China, the truth is that the U.S. is leading. But our status as the world’s leader should not be taken for granted.
To ensure that we remain in front, we must reject the Chinese or EU model in favor of a smarter regulatory approach to advanced technology.
Our dominance in the sector to date has come in no small part due to the relatively light-touch approach we’ve taken over the last 30 years.
That approach has worked because it offers clarity to existing companies and to innovators looking to make their mark, empowering them to bring their ideas from vision to reality. That clarity also serves as a beacon to attract entrepreneurs, who can after all choose anywhere in the world to set up shop.
The country with the best environment to support innovation and investment is the one that usually wins. We won the web 2.0 era by leveraging the knowledge and expertise of industry to establish standards and best practices and having product development driven by consumer choice, rather than via government fiat.
This is the playbook to winning the AI era.
Because of the nature of its regime, China is taking a different approach. But it is investing heavily to close that gap, and we must remain vigilant and cede no ground to them in the process.
To preserve and expand our lead in the AI revolution, the U.S. needs to maintain an environment that allows innovation to flourish rather than flounder. We must ignore the demagoguery that invokes scare tactics and Terminator apocalypse scenarios to paint a dystopian picture of AI and suppress progress in this space.
Rather, we need to embrace the moment and recognize the tech for the future it can offer. A future where AI can help expedite the development of lifesaving drugs, empower families to better navigate food allergies, and help children by playing a role in positively transforming our flawed education system. We need to make the best use of our tendency toward freedom and double down to prevail over the onerous regulatory regimes imposed by China and the EU.
This is about much more than just national pride or making users happy.
Taking the wrong regulatory tack on AI risks ceding massive economic opportunities to our adversaries.
Case in point, winning the race to develop 4G telecom networks added over $100 billion dollars to our country’s national GDP.
It is not out of the realm of possibility to believe that AI can have the same sort of transformative effect on our economy. For example, Goldman Sachs recently estimated that AI could raise global GDP by 7%.
Lots of Americans are wary of AI, as people throughout history have been of any new technology. But it’s absolutely essential for our economic wellbeing that the United States lead the way in this field and make AI a force for good.
