OpenAI calls on the US government to feed its data into AI systems

OpenAI wants you to think of AI like a car. Europe invented the automobile, but heavy regulations prevented its widespread adoption there. In laissez-faire America, the automobile dominates the culture. OpenAI wants the US to do this again. On Monday, the company behind ChatGPT published AI in America: OpenAI’s Economic Blueprintwhite paper that calls on Washington to let AI define the country’s future.

AI in America is a a light document of 15 pages with an AI-generated cover photo showing an architect’s desk overlooking a futuristic cityscape. The picture and 15 pages look good at first glance. But like much of AI, both the picture and the outline for economic prosperity seem vague and grotesque the more you look at them. The coffee mug in the photo is without a handle. The words written on the pages of the picture look like illegible smudges. The economic plan contains calls to action that require the government to hand over public secrets to large private companies.

The more you look, the more things fall apart. OpenAI’s Economic plan is a call for a lightly regulated AI future where government-collected data, both state secrets and public information, is fed into its vast and hungry machines.

The first thing OpenAI wants you to know is that AI is very important and very scary. “AI is too powerful to be guided and shaped by autocrats, but that is the growing risk we face, while the economic opportunity that AI presents is too compelling to pass up,” reads an introductory note from the vice president of OpenAI Global Affairs Chris Lehane. “Shared prosperity is as close and measurable as the new jobs and growth⁠(opens in new window) that will come from building more AI infrastructure like data centers, chip manufacturing facilities and power plants.”

And how should America achieve such ambitious goals? By sharing as many of its secrets as possible with AI companies. “When appropriate, share information and resources related to national security that it alone supports—such as industry security threat briefings and high-level US and non-US AI model testing results—with US AI companies , which conduct advanced research,” the economic plans say.

He goes further. OpenAI always wants the feds to share their “unique expertise with AI companies, including information on how to protect their IP against industrial security threats and reduce potential cyber, chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear CBRN and other risks that are reinforced by increasingly powerful models.”

And of course, there’s all that wonderful data just sitting there waiting to be scanned. “A lot of government data is in the public domain. Making it more accessible or machine-readable could help US AI developers of all sizes, especially those working in areas where vital data is disproportionately held by the government,” the plan said. “In return, developers using this data could work with the government to unlock new insights to help it develop better public policies.”

The economic plan also notes that “infrastructure is destiny” and that the US is uniquely positioned to create jobs and outpace China. All it needs to do is focus on building the infrastructure for AI systems, if not the people. “In the age of artificial intelligence, chips, data, energy, and talent are the resources that will support continued U.S. leadership, and as with mass-produced automobiles, channeling these resources will create broad economic opportunity and strengthen our global competitiveness.” says in it.

what it means “Seize the moment and build the infrastructure needed to produce enough power and chips to drive computing costs down and be abundant,” it says. “In turn, this will create tens of thousands of skilled trade jobs, boost local economies through spending and indirect job creation, and modernize our energy grid in the near future – ultimately supporting the kind of breakthroughs and innovation , which drive sustainable economic growth. “

This will work, provided AI turns out to be as important to the long-term future of the world as OpenAI and all the other AI companies want you to believe.

OpenAI publishes its economic plan for America in the morning announced by the Biden White House meticulous new regulations of the industry. Biden’s new regulations would create a tiered list of countries with which AI companies do business. At the first level are the USA and 18 of its allies. These countries are free of restrictions. China and Russia are in the third tier and no AI company can do business with them. The rest of the world is in level 2. They can have a little artificial intelligence as a treat. But the White House will set limits.

“In its final days in office, the Biden administration seeks to undermine America’s leadership with more than 200 pages of regulatory quagmire drafted in secret and without proper legislative review,” NVIDIA said in a blog post on the new regulations. “This massive overrun would impose bureaucratic controls on the way America’s leading semiconductors, computers, systems and even software are designed and sold globally.”

These appear to be the kinds of burdensome regulations that OpenAI has opposed in its economic plan. But it’s also mostly focused on countries other than the US. Altman and OpenAI have long been trying to do so thread the needle to call AI a revolutionary technology that needs to be put into action, while claiming that it is dangerous and in need of serious regulation.

But regulation-friendly Democrats are no longer in power. Everything can change in a week. Elon Musk is not a fan of Altman and OpenAI and is close to the future president for now. It will be interesting to see how OpenAI’s calls for looser government regulations and broad access to federal data are met by the new president and his Musk-backed administration.