In recent weeks, US lawmakers have moved to ban the Chinese app TikTok. President Biden has reinforced his commitment to overcoming China’s rise in technology. And the Chinese government added chips from Intel and AMD to an import blacklist.
Now, as the technological and economic cold war between the United States and China heats up, Silicon Valley leaders are capitalizing on the dispute with a lobbying push for their interests in another promising area of technology: artificial intelligence.
On May 1, more than 100 tech executives and investors, including Alex Karp, head of defense firm Palantir, and Roelof Botha, managing director of venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, will come to Washington for a daylong conference and private dinner. focused on creating more aggression towards China’s progress in artificial intelligence
Dozens of lawmakers, including Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, will also attend the event, at the Hill & Valley Forum, which will include fireside chats and keynote discussions with members of a new House AI task force.
Tech executives plan to use the event to directly lobby against AI regulations they see as burdensome, as well as to call for more government spending on the technology and research to support its development. They also plan to ask for immigration restrictions to be eased to bring more AI experts to the United States.
The event highlights an unusual area of agreement between Washington and Silicon Valley, which have long clashed over issues such as data privacy, online child protection and even China.
“At the end of the day, whether you’re in industry or government or whatever side of the aisle you’re on, we’re playing for Team America,” said Rep. Jay Obernolte of California, the Republican chairman of the House AI Task Force. . who will make opening remarks at the conference.
Following the rise over the past year of productive artificial intelligence – technology that has the potential to fundamentally change trends in productivity, innovation and employment – lobbying on the topic has exploded. Last year, more than 450 companies, nonprofits, universities and trade groups reported lobbying on artificial intelligence, more than double the number of organizations the year before, according to OpenSecrets, a nonprofit research group. Palantir more than doubled its lobbying spending last year to $5 million, the highest level on record.
As tech leaders capitalize on anti-China fervor in Washington, civil society groups and academics warn that discussions of competition for tech leadership could hurt efforts to regulate potential harms such as the risks of some artificial intelligence tools to kill jobs, spread misinformation and disrupt elections.
“The dynamics of this US vs. China race have profound implications because on the other side of China’s slowdown is minimal friction and regulation for American companies,” said Amba Kak, who is the executive director of the AI Now Institute, a research company. , and former senior adviser on artificial intelligence at the Federal Trade Commission.
Artificial intelligence experts say China lags the United States in genetic artificial intelligence by at least a year and may be further behind, although a new study shows it is ahead in talent.
May’s event is being hosted by Jacob Helberg, a senior adviser at Palantir and a member of the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, which reports to Congress on national security threats posed by China. He expanded this year’s forum from the first gathering he hosted last year, which was a private dinner focused largely on the threat of TikTok, which is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance.
In addition to artificial intelligence, lawmakers speaking at the Capitol event will push the Senate to pass legislation to ban TikTok, and Tom Mueller, a founding employee of SpaceX, will talk about the space race between the United States and China . Among the attendees will be Sen. Mike Rounds, R-South Dakota and a member of the Armed Services Committee, and Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-New York, on the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.
“Tech companies can no longer be neutral,” Mr. Helberg said, adding that he recuses himself from any work involving contracts at the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Board that could give Palantir an advantage.
Venture capitalists participating in the event have dozens of AI investments. Sequoia has invested in more than 70 AI startups. Khosla Ventures, a $15 billion venture capital firm, has several investments, including OpenAI, the company behind the ChatGPT chatbot.
“It has become even more obvious, even more critical, that we are facing China as an adversary,” said Vinod Khosla, head of Khosla Ventures who will speak at the forum. “What I worry about is Western values versus a different set of values in China.”
