As the global leader in AI, China would have a manufacturing advantage far more powerful than the one its cheap labor provided in the past. It would dominate financial markets, which already depend on AI systems. And it would lead innovation in sectors as diverse as transportation, healthcare and agriculture.
Most critically, China would take a decisive military lead. What the Chinese government calls “civil-military fusion” is already underway, with Alibaba, Baidu, Tencent and other tech leaders working to harness AI for military purposes.To retain our leadership, Americans will need to put aside our dysfunctional political tribalism and recommit to the shared purpose of being the world’s technology superpower.
The U.S. government and the private sector should significantly increase investment in AI research. We need better AI education and job-training programs. And the U.S. must immediately reopen its borders to the best and brightest technologists around the world. The U.S. also needs collaboration between high-tech and the military, as well as new state and city policies that experiment with public-private collaboration in AI and assure that proper safeguards are in place.
As citizens, we must insist that AI systems be not just powerful, but sustainable, ethical, transparent and humane. We need to ensure, with legislation if necessary, that AIs remain fair and “friendly,” a technical term for systems that have a positive effect rather than a negative one. It’s a tall order. But not nearly as tall as putting a man on the moon.