OPINION — Jesse Owens' historic gold medal victories at the 1936 Berlin Olympics exemplified American repudiation of Nazi ideology and Hitler’s ambition for global dominance. Today, America needs to reframe its approach to the artificial intelligence (AI) race with China with the same mindset. President Xi Jinping envisions a world where the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) uses technological dominance to shape global governance, economic development, and limit individual freedoms that do not serve to empower the CCP. Said more directly — he wants to control the way we live and work to serve his interests.
American policymakers and technologists recognize this threat and frame it as an "AI Race" between the U.S. and China. They assert, correctly, that the U.S. must win—but how?
ChatGPT estimates that the global dialogue about the "AI Race" focuses on performance, compute and energy (40-50%); geopolitical strategy and national security (10-15%); ethics, regulation, and AI safety (15-20%); economic and labor market impacts (10-15%); and consumer applications and societal use cases (5-10%).
To ‘go for the gold’ and win the AI race, the US must establish the demand signal and set adoption goals. We are in an AI-adoption race, not an AI-infrastructure race. Victory will be determined by how AI is embedded into the way we live, work, and fight. Americans should be asking:
- Will AI enable life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness or will AI limit speech and enhance government surveillance and authoritarian controls?
- Will AI create new jobs, new industries, and previously unimaginable growth or will AI eliminate jobs and fundamentally disrupt the labor-based fabric of our economy?
- Will AI promote peace by improving communication, collaboration, and conflict resolution, or will it incite war through decentralization of military capabilities and autonomous warfare?
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Defining the Race
Practically speaking, races have a finish line. They are outcome oriented. In his famous 1961 speech to Congress, President John F. Kennedy committed the nation to the ambitious goal of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth before the decade's end. His vision galvanized national support and spurred significant investment in NASA and space technology, ultimately propelling the U.S. to achieve the historic Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969. President Trump’s impending AI Action Plan should set a similar vision.
In the race to the moon, the U.S. and Soviet Union poured resources into developing cutting-edge technologies, driven by the belief that victory would symbolize the superiority of their respective political and economic systems. America took advantage of the competition by driving unprecedented innovation that cemented America’s lead in the world—both militarily and commercially.
Militarily, the U.S. created a robust and resilient arsenal of nuclear weapon delivery systems that deterred the Soviet Union from preemptive attack. Commercially, the impacts of the space race were wide-ranging:
- Texas Instruments played a key role in the development of integrated circuits and miniaturizing electronic components that laid the groundwork for modern computing and consumer electronics.
- AT&T developed advanced satellite communication technology, including the Telstar satellite, which enabled the first transatlantic television broadcasts and paved the way for global communications.
- DuPont created Teflon, a non-stick coating originally used in spacecraft, which is now widely used in cookware and other applications.
- General Electric made significant contributions to medical imaging technologies, including MRI machines, that have a lasting impact on diagnostic medicine.
During the space race, the Soviets proved just as capable of achieving major breakthroughs and developing exquisite weapons. However, American dynamism won the Cold War, in part, because our citizens incorporated this technology into their everyday lives, while Soviet citizens queued in long lines for cars, washing machines and televisions. These natural benefits of a capitalist economy won’t ensure victory. China learned from Soviet failures and subsidizes commercial production and adoption. Therefore, the U.S. must be even more ambitious at cultivating AI innovation and unleashing AI-driven opportunities to redefine the way we live and work.
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Shifting the Paradigm: From Inputs to Impact
As we reset our course to win the AI race, we must shift our focus from the intricacies of technological inputs to the broader societal impacts that AI can deliver. Just as the Space Race catalyzed innovation across multiple industries, the AI race presents an opportunity to redefine our geopolitical, economic, and social landscapes. To truly capitalize on this potential, the United States must prioritize outcomes that align with our core values of freedom, innovation, and human dignity. Our ambitions should be both bold and broad. Commercially we should set goals for:
- Individualized Healthcare: AI-driven solutions that enhance patient care, streamline diagnostics, and personalize treatment plans should improve health outcomes, reduce costs, and increase accessibility to medical services. We should strive to cure cancer within a decade.
- Sustainable Agriculture: Farmers should use AI-optimized irrigation, pest control, and resource allocation to achieve food security and sustainability for all Americans.
- Advanced Manufacturing: AI-powered automation and predictive maintenance should power American industries and create 1 million new high-skilled jobs in the next five years.
We should also set grand ambitions for AI-enabled government outcomes:
- Education and Workforce Development: Teachers should use AI to tailor educational content and learning experiences to individual needs, ensuring that students and workers acquire the skills necessary for the future job market. The U.S. currently ranks in the middle of OECD countries in reading (13th), science (18th), and math (18th). We should set goals to be in the top 3 for all core subjects.
- Public Health and Safety: Medical and safety professionals should use AI to predict and manage public health crises, optimize resource allocation, and improve response times. AI can assist in early detection of disease outbreaks and enhance emergency response capabilities, ultimately protecting and improving public health. The U.S. should be ranked in the top 5 of global health system performance and efficiency rankings by 2030—improving key health outcomes such as life expectancy. Wait times in emergency rooms should be eliminated.
- Smart Infrastructure: AI-enabled smart cities and smart towns will optimize traffic management, energy consumption, and public transportation systems. This can lead to more sustainable urban environments and improved quality of life for citizens. The U.S. should achieve 30% reductions in average commute times and crime rates while improving citizen satisfaction with government services by 50% within the decade. Imagine if the U.S. eliminated its almost 40,000 annual traffic deaths.
- Defense and National Security: Develop AI technologies that bolster all forms of national defense and intelligence capabilities. We can set many broad ambitions including: a Golden Dome, autonomous swarm drones, predictive and auto-reactive cyber defenses, adaptive camouflage and stealth, AI-powered real-time intelligence analysis, and AI-enabled military decision support and implementation.
A Vision for Victory
The AI race will likely define what it’s like to live in the 21st century. The path forward requires a commitment to bold ambitions and measurable goals that prioritize human dignity, innovation, and freedom. By focusing on outcomes, like getting to the moon, the U.S. will uplift individuals and communities, and create a world where AI amplifies the best of what humanity has to offer. In this race, the true victory will be measured not by the sophistication of our algorithms or the power of our machines but by the impact we have on the lives of people across the globe.
The Cipher Brief is committed to publishing a range of perspectives on national security issues submitted by deeply experienced national security professionals.Opinions expressed are those of the author and do not represent the views or opinions of The Cipher Brief.
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