OpenAI wants US to team up with allies to beat China in AI race

OpenAI is calling for the US and its allies to work together to support the infrastructure needed to develop artificial intelligence (AI) systems and compete with China.

The AI start-up said Wednesday that the US and neighbouring countries should form a “North American Compact for AI” that can streamline access to talent, financing and supply chains for building out the technology. The company said this collaboration could later expand to include a “global network of US allies and partners”, including countries in the Middle East.

The proposal was included in a new policy blueprint from OpenAI unveiled at an event in Washington hosted by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. The document offers OpenAI’s most detailed public suggestions yet for how the US can maintain its lead in artificial intelligence and meet the technology’s significant energy demands.

OpenAI said the US should backstop costly energy infrastructure projects by committing to purchase power from them. The company recommended the US establish “AI Economic Zones” that speed up the permitting process and help bring nuclear reactors back online. It also proposed expanding nuclear energy capacity by tapping the US Navy, which has built compact reactors to power submarines.

“AI presents an unmissable opportunity to reindustrialise the US, and through that, generate the kind of broad-based economic growth that will revitalise the American Dream,” OpenAI said. “It also presents a national security imperative to protect our nation and our allies against a surging China by offering an AI shaped by democratic values, promoting individual choice and benefiting the most people possible.”