Amid growing competition with China over advanced technologies, a US congressional commission on Tuesday proposed a Manhattan Project-style initiative to finance the development of AI systems that will be as smart or smarter than humans.
The bipartisan US-China Economic and Security Review Commission stressed that public-private partnerships are important in advancing artificial general intelligence, but did not provide any specific investment strategies when it released its annual report.
The Manhattan Project was a large-scale collaboration between the US government and the private sector during World War II that produced the first atomic bomb.
“We have seen throughout history that the countries that are the first to take advantage of periods of rapid technological change are often the ones that shift the global balance of power,” Jacob Helberg, a USCC commissioner and senior adviser to the CEO of software company Palantir, told Reuters. “Can become the reason.”
“China is racing towards AGI… it’s important that we take them very seriously,” Helberg said.
Noting that energy infrastructure is a significant barrier to training large AI models, Helberg suggested that streamlining the permitting process for data centers could be an example of how public-private partnerships can speed up AI development. Can give.
ChatGept creator OpenAI, which last week released a proposed blueprint for a US AI strategy, has also called for more government funding for artificial intelligence.
The USCC, established by Congress in 2000, provides annual recommendations on US-China relations. Known for its aggressive policy proposals, the commission aims to guide lawmakers on issues of economic and strategic competition with China.
Other recommendations in this year’s USCC report include repealing the minimum trade exemption, which allows Chinese goods worth less than $800 (roughly Rs. 67,504) to bypass tariffs with minimal paperwork and inspection, the government said. The watch list requires approval and elimination of preferential capital gains treatment associated with Chinese companies. China’s involvement in biotechnology companies operating in the United States.
Commissioner Kimberly Glass said in a briefing on the report that the immediate elimination of de minimis treatment for e-commerce goods was one of the panel’s most important recommendations, given the sheer volume of packages that make it through Customs and Border Protection. Makes it difficult. The flow of dangerous products into the US, including fentanyl chemicals and pill presses.
“Just to give you a sense of the trajectory, that’s four million boxes per day, with an estimated 1.4 billion de minimis shipments in the last year,” Glass said. “It’s impossible to monitor what’s in those boxes.
“De minimis was created in the 1930s so we could bring back trinkets from overseas and not have to pay tariffs. In an e-commerce environment, it’s a means to get duty-free, no-inspection treatment for Chinese products. It’s done,” she said.
Republican and Democratic lawmakers have also introduced a series of bills aimed specifically at curbing de minimis for shipments from China. But bipartisan cooperation has been elusive in a tumultuous election year, and the shipping industry and pro-trade groups have lobbied against such measures, arguing they would disrupt e-commerce.
© Thomson Reuters 2024
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