Opinion: Who will control the future of AI?

A democratic vision for artificial intelligence must prevail over an authoritarian one. Sam Altman is co-founder and CEO of OpenAI and addresses the question: Who will control the future of AI?

This is the urgent question of our time—and the foreseeable future. The rapid progress in artificial intelligence means that we face a strategic choice about what kind of world we will live in. Will it be one where the United States and allied nations advance a global AI that spreads the technology’s benefits and opens access to it, or an authoritarian one, where nations or movements that do not share our values use AI to consolidate and expand their power?

There is no third option—and it’s time to decide which path to take. The United States currently has a lead in AI development, but continued leadership is far from guaranteed. Authoritarian governments around the world are willing to spend enormous sums of money to catch up and ultimately surpass us. Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has ominously warned that the country that wins the AI race will “become the ruler of the world,” and the People’s Republic of China has also declared its intention to become the global leader in AI by 2030.

These authoritarian regimes and movements will keep the scientific, health, educational, and other societal benefits of the technology tightly controlled to consolidate their own power. If they manage to take the lead in AI, they will force U.S. companies and those of other nations to share user data, using the technology to develop new ways to spy on their own citizens and to create next-generation cyberweapons for use against other countries.

The first chapter of AI is already written. Systems like ChatGPT, Copilot, and others function as limited assistants. By documenting patient visits so nurses and doctors can spend more time with the sick, or as advanced assistants in specific areas such as code generation for software development. Further advances will soon follow and usher in a decisive period in the history of human society.

If we want to ensure that the future of AI benefits the greatest number of people, we need a U.S.-led global coalition of like-minded countries and an innovative new strategy to make this happen. The public and technology sectors in the United States must get four key things right to ensure the creation of a world shaped by a democratic vision for AI.

First, American AI firms and industry need to develop robust security measures to ensure that our coalition maintains the lead in current and future models and enables our private sector to innovate. These measures should include cyberdefense and data center security innovations to prevent hackers from stealing key intellectual property such as model weights and AI training data. Many of these defenses will benefit from the power of artificial intelligence, which makes it easier and faster for human analysts to identify risks and respond to attacks. The U.S. government and private sector can work together to develop these security measures as quickly as possible.

Second, infrastructure is destiny when it comes to AI. The early installation of fiber-optic cables, coaxial lines, and other broadband infrastructures allowed the United States to remain at the center of the digital revolution for decades and build its current lead in artificial intelligence. U.S. policymakers must collaborate with the private sector to build significantly larger amounts of physical infrastructure—from data centers to power plants—that operate the AI systems themselves. Public-private partnerships to build this needed infrastructure will provide U.S. firms with the computing power to expand access to AI and better distribute its societal benefits.

Building this infrastructure will also create new jobs nationwide. We are witnessing the birth and evolution of a technology I consider as momentous as electricity or the internet. AI can be the foundation of a new industrial base that our country would be wise to embrace.

Sam Altman reveals further points about the future of AI. You can read more in the original publication in the Washington Post.