Axios interview: Altman urges U.S. action to beat China in AI race
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Sam Altman speaks at the Microsoft Build conference in Seattle in May. Photo: Grant Hindsley/The New York Times
Sam Altman, OpenAI co-founder and CEO, is calling for a "U.S.-led global coalition" to ensure a democratic vision for AI prevails over an authoritarian one — and says both Washington and state governments must act with more urgency.
- "The future continues to come at us fast," Altman told Axios in a phone interview Wednesday. "I'm grateful that some stuff is happening [at the White House and on Capitol Hill]. But I don't think we're seeing the level of seriousness that this warrants."
Why it matters: In the face of China's determination to become a dominant AI player, Altman wants to goad governments at all levels into a more strategic, urgent AI approach.
- "We need the democratic — small 'd' democratic — world to win here, and we have the opportunity to do it," he told Axios.
Altman was previewing an op-ed posted Thursday by The Washington Post, in which he argues that "authoritarian regimes and movements will keep a close hold on the technology's scientific, health, educational and other societal benefits to cement their own power."
- "If they manage to take the lead on AI," Altman writes, "they will force U.S. companies and those of other nations to share user data, leveraging the technology to develop new ways of spying on their own citizens or creating next-generation cyberweapons to use against other countries."
Altman writes that U.S. "public and technology sectors need to get four big things right to ensure the creation of a world shaped by a democratic vision for AI":
- Basic security: "American AI firms and industry need to craft ... cyberdefense and data center security innovations to prevent hackers from stealing key intellectual property such as model weights and AI training data. ... The U.S. government and the private sector can partner together to develop these security measures as quickly as possible."
- Infrastructure "is destiny when it comes to AI. The early installation of fiber-optic cables, coaxial lines and other pieces of broadband infrastructure is what allowed the United States to spend decades at the center of the digital revolution. ... U.S. policymakers must work with the private sector to build significantly larger quantities of the physical infrastructure — from data centers to power plants."
- Commercial diplomacy, "including clarity around how the United States intends to implement export controls and foreign investment rules for the global buildout of AI systems. That will also mean setting out rules of the road for what sorts of chips, AI training data and other code ... can be housed in the data centers that countries around the world are racing to build to localize AI information."
- Global governance: "I've spoken in the past about creating something akin to the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] for AI. ... Another potential model is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers [ICANN], which was established by the U.S. government in 1998, less than a decade after the creation of the World Wide Web, to standardize how we navigate the digital world."
Altman told Axios that state governments must do more to ensure "physical infrastructure — data centers and power and water and manufacturing."
- "I realize how difficult that is, and that it takes a long time. But all the more reason to get going," he said.
Altman told us that regardless of who wins in November, "the next president is going to be required to make some very substantial decisions about the rollout of AI into the world."
- Asked how much it matters who wins the White House, Altman said Open AI will "proudly work with whoever is the next president of the United States. ... This is an issue for the United States of America much more than an issue for either political party."
The bottom line: "If we want to ensure that the future of AI is a future built to benefit the most people possible," Altman writes, "we need a U.S.-led global coalition ... to make it happen."
- Read the op-ed, "Who will control the future of AI?" (Gift link — no paywall).
