OpenAI and Google call for US government action to secure AI lead

OpenAI and Google are each urging the US government to take decisive action to secure the nation’s AI leadership.

“As America’s world-leading AI sector approaches AGI, with a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) determined to overtake us by 2030, the Trump Administration’s new AI Action Plan can ensure that American-led AI built on democratic principles continues to prevail over CCP-built autocratic, authoritarian AI,” wrote OpenAI, in a letter to the Office of Science and Technology Policy.

In a separate letter, Google echoed this sentiment by stating, “While America currently leads the world in AI – and is home to the most capable and widely adopted AI models and tools – our lead is not assured.”    

A plan for the AI Action Plan

OpenAI highlighted AI’s potential to “scale human ingenuity,” driving productivity, prosperity, and freedom.  The company likened the current advancements in AI to historical leaps in innovation, such as the domestication of the horse, the invention of the printing press, and the advent of the computer.

We are at “the doorstep of the next leap in prosperity,” according to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. The company stresses the importance of “freedom of intelligence,” advocating for open access to AGI while safeguarding against autocratic control and bureaucratic barriers.

OpenAI also outlined three scaling principles:

1. The intelligence of an AI model roughly equals the log of the resources used to train and run it.

2. The cost to use a given level of AI capability falls by about 10x every 12 months.

3. The amount of calendar time it takes to improve an AI model keeps decreasing.

Google also has a three-point plan for the US to focus on:

1. Invest in AI: Google called for coordinated action to address the surging energy needs of AI infrastructure, balanced export controls, continued funding for R&D, and pro-innovation federal policy frameworks.

2. Accelerate and modernise government AI adoption: Google urged the federal government to lead by example through AI adoption and deployment, including implementing multi-vendor, interoperable AI solutions and streamlining procurement processes.

3. Promote pro-innovation approaches internationally: Google advocated for an active international economic policy to support AI innovation, championing market-driven technical standards, working with aligned countries to address national security risks, and combating restrictive foreign AI barriers.

AI policy recommendations for the US government

Both companies provided detailed policy recommendations to the US government.

OpenAI’s proposals include:

• A regulatory strategy that ensures the freedom to innovate through voluntary partnership between the federal government and the private sector.    

• An export control strategy that promotes the global adoption of American AI systems while protecting America’s AI lead.    

• A copyright strategy that protects the rights of content creators while preserving American AI models’ ability to learn from copyrighted material.    

• An infrastructure opportunity strategy to drive growth, including policies to support a thriving AI-ready workforce and ecosystems of labs, start-ups, and larger companies.    

• An ambitious government adoption strategy to ensure the US government itself sets an example of using AI to benefit its citizens.    

Google’s recommendations include:

• Advancing energy policies to power domestic data centres, including transmission and permitting reform.    

• Adopting balanced export control policies that support market access while targeting pertinent risks.    

• Accelerating AI R&D, streamlining access to computational resources, and incentivising public-private partnerships.    

• Crafting a pro-innovation federal framework for AI, including federal legislation that prevents a patchwork of state laws, ensuring industry has access to data that enables fair learning, emphasising sector-specific and risk-based AI governance, and supporting workforce initiatives to develop AI skills.    

Both OpenAI and Google emphasise the need for swift and decisive action. OpenAI warned that America’s lead in AI is narrowing, while Google stressed that policy decisions will determine the outcome of the global AI competition.

“We are in a global AI competition, and policy decisions will determine the outcome,” Google explained. “A pro-innovation approach that protects national security and ensures that everyone benefits from AI is essential to realising AI’s transformative potential and ensuring that America’s lead endures.”

(Photo by Nils Huenerfuerst) 

See also: Gemma 3: Google launches its latest open AI models

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