In recent weeks, American lawmakers have been moving to ban the Chinese-owned app TikTok. President Biden has reinforced his resolve to overcome China’s rise in the technology sector. And the Chinese government has added Intel and AMD chips to its import blacklist.
Now, as the technology and economic cold war between the United States and China accelerates, Silicon Valley leaders are stepping up the conflict by lobbying for profits in another promising technology area: artificial intelligence. I’m taking advantage of it.
More than 100 technology executives and investors visited Washington on May 1, including Alex Karp, head of defense contractor Palantir, and Roelof Botha, managing partner of venture capital firm Sequoia Capital. , which will include a full-day conference and private dinner.Focused on becoming more hawkish on China’s AI advances
Dozens of members of Congress, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, are also scheduled to attend the Hill & Valley Forum, which will feature fireside chats and keynote discussions with members of the new House AI Task Force. ing.
Technology executives plan to use the event to directly lobby against AI regulations they see as onerous, and to push for more government spending on the technology and the research that supports its development. It will also seek to ease immigration restrictions in order to attract more AI experts to the United States.
The event focuses on areas of unusual agreement between Washington and Silicon Valley, which have long been at odds on topics such as data privacy, children’s online protection and even China.
“At the end of the day, whether we’re in industry or government or on either side, we’re a team,” said Rep. Jay Obanolte, R-Calif., Republican chairman of the House Select Committee on AI. “I’m playing for America.” Who will give the opening speech at the meeting?
Since the rise of generative AI over the past year – a technology that has the potential to fundamentally change trends in productivity, innovation and employment – there has been an explosion of lobbying on the subject. More than 450 companies, nonprofits, universities, and industry groups reported lobbying efforts on AI last year, more than double the number of organizations the year before, according to OpenSecret, a nonprofit research group. Palantir more than doubled its lobbying spending last year to $5 million, the highest amount on record.
As technology industry leaders capitalize on anti-China fervor in Washington, civil society groups and academics say the debate over competition for tech industry leadership is changing as some AI tools destroy jobs and spread disinformation. , warns that it could harm efforts to regulate potential harms, including the risk of disrupting society. election.
“This competitive dynamic between the U.S. and China is significant, because the flip side of China’s slowdown is to minimize friction and regulation,” said Amba Kaku, executive director of the research firm AI Now Institute. Because it will be done.” , former senior AI advisor at the Federal Trade Commission.
AI experts say China is at least a year behind the US in generative AI and could fall further behind, but new study suggests China is ahead in talent states that they are doing so.
The May event is hosted by Jacob Helberg, a senior adviser at Palantir and a member of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, which reports to Congress on national security threats from China. He expanded this year’s forum from the first gathering he hosted last year, which was a private dinner that focused primarily on the threat from TikTok, which is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance.
In addition to AI, lawmakers speaking at the Capitol event will ask the Senate to pass a bill to ban TikTok, and Tom Mueller, a founding employee of SpaceX, will I’m going to give a talk about competition. Attendees include Sen. Mike Rounds, Republican of South Dakota and ranking member of the Armed Services Committee, and Rep. Ritchie Torres, a New York Democrat on the House Select Committee on the Communist Party of China.
“Tech companies can no longer be neutral,” Helberg said, adding that he would refrain from any work related to U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission contracts that might favor Palantir.
Venture capitalists attending the event have made dozens of AI investments. Sequoia has invested in over 70 of his AI startups. Khosla Ventures, a $15 billion venture firm, has several investments, including OpenAI, which created the ChatGPT chatbot.
“It has become even clearer and more important that we treat China as an adversary,” said Vinod Khosla, president of Khosla Ventures, speaking at the forum. “What I’m worried about is the different values between Western values and China.”
