America Must Lead, Send Consistent Messages To The World On AI
By Paul Steidler: The world is looking to the United States to take the lead on Artificial Intelligence (AI). It is important for Administration officials and the myriad of government agencies to speak clearly and harmoniously as AI has the potential to lift up the world. Our latest newsletter discusses these and related issues.
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America Must Lead, Send Consistent Messages to the World on AI
The world is looking to the United States for global leadership in Artificial Intelligence (AI). It is important that the Administration and the myriad of U.S. government agencies it leads speak in a harmonized manner.
Indeed, America should always convey optimism, resolve, and an unapologetic determination to be the world’s leading AI provider.
We have standing to do so. Our country has a bevy of successful, innovative, and determined technology companies taking financial risks and making significant organizational changes in the AI age to pursue and capture the technology. Our government leaders should speak with confidence.
The good news is that there are strong signs that these principles and communication approaches are being implemented within the Administration. However, that is not universal, as evidenced by a July 23 announcement from the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice with its international counterparts.
We review these matters below.
Core Components of Leadership
There are three qualities that should characterize U.S. leadership about AI as we speak to the world.
First, there should be a recognition of the great promise and optimism that the technology provides.
Second, the best way to ensure the benefits of AI is for the U.S. to be the leading, and preferably the dominant provider of it instead of China and other countries that do not always share our interests and values.
Third, while seeking to strengthen like-minded and freedom-loving nations, international AI policy must always put American interests first while simultaneously recognizing that AI’s benefits can and should lift all nations.
U.S. State Department
The U.S. Department of State seems to have embraced the above three principles.
In testimony to the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee on November 15, 2023, Ambassador Nathaniel Fick, who oversees the U.S. Department of State’s work on cyberspace, digital policy, and emerging technologies, addressed these matters. He has also worked with the G7, the G20, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the United Nations “to achieve tangible commitments on the responsible development, deployment, and use of artificial intelligence.”
Perhaps because he is a combat Marine Corps officer veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with being a successful tech company Chief Executive Officer, Fick’s comments are direct, clear, and refreshing for a senior government official.
“Put simply, in the realm of geopolitical competition, tech is the game. It is revolutionary and accelerating. The United States must lead, engaging boldly on behalf of our values and interests,” Fick testified to the Committee.
And Fick also had a warning for our adversaries. “We are under no naïve illusion that our adversaries are going to comply with our norms, but building a broad coalition, setting the normative example at least puts our adversaries outside of the framework.”
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Elizabeth Kelly, Director of the U.S. Artificial Intelligence Institute, which is part of the prestigious National Institute of Standards and Technology, shares that optimism. She, too, has been an important part of international discussions.
In a July 26 segment with the POLITICO Tech podcast, she was asked about her view of AI a year into her job.
“I continue to believe that AI has huge transformative potential to address really gnawing societal challenges. Things like individualized education. Weather prediction and carbon capture storage in the climate space. Drug discovery and development. And early detection of illnesses in healthcare,” said Director Kelly.
“I really think there is a massive promise here and I think the President and the Administration have been really clear about the opportunity that we see if we can get safety right. In our view, safety enables trust, which enables adoption, which enables innovation,” said Director Kelly.
Recent Outlier
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DoJ’s) Antitrust Division, which have many missions besides gauging the future of AI, recently weighed into the issue.
In a July 23 statement issued by the European Commission, the United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority, the FTC, and the DoJ, the regulators announced they “will work to ensure effective competition that provides fair and honest treatment for both consumers and businesses.”
At the same time, there was clear pessimism voiced on AI, “At their best, these (AI) technologies could materially benefit our citizens, boost innovation, and drive economic growth.” Far more effusive statements have been issued about infrastructure projects.
This unfortunate statement that the FTC and DoJ are part of is based on searching for problems that do not exist, downplaying a transformative technology, and adopting an attitude hostile to American technology that has been characteristic of European regulators for some time. In short, it amounts to following rather than leading, being pessimistic rather than optimistic, and chasing headlines when other experts should drive this process.
While the July 23 statement is fatally flawed, it will hopefully have little practical impact on AI policy and be reversed soon. Most importantly, the Administration should continue to speak to the world in the above manner that Ambassador Fick and Director Kelly have.