AI Is a National Security Lifeline

In the last several months, there has been no shortage of headlines speculating about the potential for Artificial Intelligence (AI) to spread misinformation, displace jobs, or even lead to “societal-scale risks” like nuclear war. Largely absent from the discussion has been the understanding that with AI, the United States has been given an economic and national security lifeline. When I was called to testify before Congress last month, I used the occasion to share my belief that AI, and particularly generative AI (GenAI), presents the US with a significant opportunity to advance innovation, boost economic readiness, and maintain global leadership in an emerging technology critical to US security interests against adversaries like China.

More specifically, AI will be a force-multiplier. It can offer us an opportunity to get our economic house in order, lay a foundation for America’s long-term prosperity, and build a national security enterprise that is sufficiently resourced to secure that prosperity for a generation or more. Critical to this effort, however, will be ensuring that our early leadership on foundational AI models translates into real economic and security benefits for the American people.

It’s not a foregone conclusion that the country that pioneers a technology will maintain leadership on that technology. Just ask French internet developers in the 1980s, or the US semiconductor industry. We must prioritize durable leadership on AI and ensure that leading AI innovators continue to outpace foreign adversaries eager to overtake the US’s clear advantage in this space.

I’ll be the first to agree that a technology as consequential as AI requires thoughtful, considered regulation, as well as alignment on addressing security challenges. But policy should not come at the expense of innovation. This is why during my testimony before the House Armed Services Committee, I called for “regulatory interoperability” with our allies. As Ambassador Nate Fick eloquently noted, the United States’ “north star” should be around “preserving the power of innovation and really continuing to enable [AI] to have positive impact in so many of the areas of common interest across the world.” To achieve this, the Ambassador, a former technology executive, called for “a governance and regulatory structure that addresses the downside risks without constraining the companies’ ability to innovate.”

Unfortunately, we are seeing allies like the European Union (EU) fall into its typical pattern to “regulate first and ask questions later,” this time with its proposed AI Act. Though the motivation for the AI Act is presumably for the EU to advantage its own technology companies, these very companies have been some of the bill’s harshest critics. More than 150 executives from EU-based companies stated that the AI Act would “jeopardise Europe’s competitiveness and technological sovereignty” by anchoring “the regulation of generative AI in law and proceeding with a rigid compliance logic is as bureaucratic of an approach as it is ineffective in fulfilling its purpose.” EU companies—and even 10 EU prime ministers—are now asking whether the EU’s regulatory model is fit for purpose to enable European competitiveness. Over two decades, the EU’s economy increased approximately 6 percent, while the US economy grew 82 percent over the same period.

Fortunately, most US policymakers are so far seeking a different approach. The White House should be commended for its recent success launching a number of voluntary commitments to manage risks posed by AI. Signed by the top innovators in the AI field, these eight commitments aim to ensure the safe, transparent, and ethical development of AI while still encouraging innovation across the industry. In the coming months, the US will have several opportunities to promote these commitments as a model for allies to follow at upcoming forums like the G7, G-20, the UK AI Summit, and the Trade and Technology Council (TTC). In doing so, the US should continue to elevate the debate and reject blinkered efforts by some domestic regulators who would prefer to import the EU’s regulatory model and “unplug the machine.”

As a nation we are just beginning to unearth the promise of AI, and, as we do so, we are becoming increasingly aware of the risks. The road to global AI leadership requires rigorous public-private partnership and an acknowledgment that we must all work together to chart a sensible path through the ambiguity which often accompanies innovation, without stifling forward momentum.