Legislators on both sides of the aisle recognize that the U.S. must lead the world in artificial intelligence to preserve national security. This gives the incoming Trump administration a chance to establish a historic advantage for the U.S. and the free world.
AI will likely become the most powerful and strategic technology in history. By 2027, AI developed by frontier labs will likely be smarter than Nobel Prize winners across most fields of science and engineering. It will be able to use all the senses and interfaces of a human working virtually—text, audio, video, mouse, keyboard control and internet access—to complete complex tasks that would take people months or years, such as designing new weapons or curing diseases. Imagine a country of geniuses contained in a data center.
The nations that are first to build powerful AI systems will gain a strategic advantage over its development. Incoming Trump administration officials can take steps to ensure the U.S. and its allies lead in developing this technology. If they succeed, it could deliver breakthroughs in medicine, energy and economic development. It could also extend American military pre-eminence. If they fail, another nation—most likely China—could surpass us economically and militarily. It’s imperative that free societies with democratic oversight and the rule of law set the norms by which AI is employed. They won’t be able to do so if totalitarian governments pioneer these technologies.
Export controls, which ban shipments to China of the high-end chips needed to train advanced AI models, have been a valuable tool in slowing China’s AI development. These controls began during the first Trump term and expanded under the Biden administration to cover a wider range of chips and chip-manufacturing equipment. The controls appear to have been effective: The CEO of one of China’s leading AI firms recently said the main obstacle he faces is the embargo on high-end chips.
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Matt Pottinger is a Senior Fellow at Yorktown Institute and served as U.S. deputy national security adviser, 2019-21.
Dario Amodei is CEO and a co-founder of Anthropic.
