OPINION — 'Innovation power' is essential for American economic and national security. In the global competition in a transformational age, the United States benefits greatly through its instruments of economic and technological power. At a scale unique among nations, national security advantages accrue to the United States through its commercial technology industries. This ‘innovation power’ is the difference that allows America to sustain both its world leading economic competitiveness and our national security. In an age of Artificial Intelligence, scaled information platforms, battlefield automation, emerging concepts for robotic systems and human-machine teaming, this allows us the flexibility to ensure strong economic growth, better health outcomes, advantaged industries and world-class research. Comparing today’s vibrant information and automation industries to those of the industrial age would make obvious the advantages contained in scaled digital enterprises. Industrial age practice cannot match the pace of innovation in a digitally transformed age. By the same token, it is essential that our ecosystems of regulation, oversight, privacy, and fair trade are painted by the same transformational brush. We cannot prevail with 2020’s innovation and 1970’s oversight mechanisms.
Today, American advantages are primarily manifest in scaled information enterprises. It takes large companies, great risk and massive resourcing to build the infrastructure and gain the exponential outcomes of this ecosystem. Internet-scale data resources are necessary as America leads in artificial intelligence, global data distribution, and innovative defense concepts. Scale matters, and scale is the main ingredient of exponential technology. A house that is wired to a 110V standard enables an array of appliances to be seamlessly connected. So too, scaled innovation enterprises, virtualized data centers and search platforms enable mass innovation in the information space. We are in a race with a monolithic competitor, the People’s Republic of China, who doggedly seeks to usurp our lead but can only do so if we stumble or choose to slow down. The risk posed by over-aggressive regulatory agendas or frameworks is very real.
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An industrial age perception of ‘monopoly-busting’ in an era of scaled global data ecosystems hobbles the national security advantages and economic competitiveness of a modern nation. This perspective is evidenced by the Department of Justice considering breaking up Google and forcing it to share its AI data, the FTC investigating partnerships between American AI innovators, among other examples. Automation, virtual modeling, robotics and human-machine teaming will all build on the wide range of platforms and ecosystems that our foundational scaled enterprises have built. We should not be willing to build a transformational world-leading innovative environment only to have it fall prey to fear, local agendas, political posturing or unimaginative bureaucratic practice.
Many have raised concerns about the potential risks of AI. Some of these are dystopian scenarios that are a credit to the imagination but are grounded only in fear and ignorance. In fact, there is a robust Responsible AI ecosystem of national security, intelligence, international, academic and commercial practitioners that have built secure AI frameworks. This work continues. AI Ethics is a leading course of study. AI and data practitioners have been leading the way in defining safe and reliable ecosystems since the beginning of commercial application. Still, fear of the unknown coupled with non-technical agendas have led to a blizzard of proposed competitiveness-killing legislation and regulation. Regulatory over-pressure may come from a knee-jerk misunderstanding of Large Language Models rather than consideration of the broader application base of AI, automation, and simple algorithms. Where machine outcomes do not match human expectations, we are quick to blame the machine. The threat to American competitiveness from arbitrary or gratuitous regulatory action is as real as the possibilities of our international competitors stealing a march on our efforts. Policymakers might consider that a scalpel is better suited than an axe when it comes to regulating the tools that will accelerate our nation's success. The destiny of American competitiveness, national security and economic prosperity are in the balance as we lead this transformation.
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