Commission Says US Needs AI Push To Rival China

The United States Congressional Commission recommends the U.S. Secretary of Defense designate AI projects as the highest national priority.

According to a bipartisan United States Congressional Commission, the nation should establish an initiative comparable to the Manhattan Project to facilitate the advancement of artificial intelligence development in the face of intensifying competition from China.

The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) has recommended that Congress “establish and fund a Manhattan Project-like program dedicated to” advancing artificial general intelligence (AGI) capability in its most recent November report.

The report indicates that AGI is a “system that is as good as or better than human capabilities,” which could “usurp the sharpest human minds at every task.

” The Manhattan Project was a joint US Government and private research project that assisted in the development of the first nuclear bombs during World War II.

The USCC has stated that public-private partnerships, similar to the Manhattan Project, will be essential for the advancement of AGI in the United States.

The commission recommended that the US Secretary of Defense designate AI initiatives with the highest national priority designation, as part of a list of specific recommendations.

It also advocated for the executive branch to be granted “broad multiyear contracting authority” and to allocate funding to prominent data center, cloud, and AI companies in order to facilitate the advancement of development at a “pace and scale that is consistent” with US objectives.

In recent years, China has prioritized the development of emergent technologies, including AI, quantum technologies, biotechnology, and battery energy storage systems, according to the USCC.

The “race for superior AI” across industries is contingent upon the successful integration of enabling technologies and building blocks, such as advanced chips, computing capacity, and rich data sets for language model training, according to the report.

“Although the United States currently holds a majority of the AI-related technologies, China is making rapid progress and has exhibited some capacity to innovate in response to US and allied export controls, with varying degrees of success.”

The report asserts that China’s accelerated technological advancements pose a threat to the US economy and military, and they have the potential to undermine the deterrence and stability in the Pacific, as well as shift the global balance of power if they are able to surmount these obstacles.

The USCC recommends the repeal of trade exemptions that permit certain categories of Chinese goods to circumvent US tariffs as part of its other recommendations.

The commission was established in 2000 with the objective of monitoring, investigating, and regularly reporting to Congress on the trade and economic relationship between the United States and China.