US government commission pushes Manhattan Project-style AI initiative

By Anna Tong

(Reuters) – A U.S. congressional commission on Tuesday proposed a Manhattan Project-style initiative to fund the development of AI systems that will be as smart or smarter than humans, amid intensifying competition with China over advanced technologies.

The bipartisan U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission’s (USCC) stressed that public-private partnerships are key in advancing artificial general intelligence (AGI), but did not give any specific investment strategies as it released its annual report.

The Manhattan Project was a large-scale collaboration between the U.S. government and the private sector during World War Two that produced the first atomic bombs.

“We’ve seen throughout history that countries that are first to exploit periods of rapid technological change can often cause shifts in the global balance of power,” Jacob Helberg, a USCC commissioner and senior advisor to Palantir’s CEO, told Reuters. 

“China is racing towards AGI … It’s critical that we take them extremely seriously,” Helberg added.

Noting that energy infrastructure is a significant bottleneck for training large AI models, Helberg suggested that streamlining the permitting process for data centers might be an example of how a public-private partnership could accelerate AI development.

ChatGPT maker OpenAI, which last week released a proposed blueprint for U.S. AI strategy, has also called for more government funding for artificial intelligence.

The USCC, established by Congress in 2000, provides annual recommendations on U.S.-China relations. Known for its hawkish policy proposals, the commission aims to guide lawmakers on issues of economic and strategic competition with China.

Other recommendations in this year’s USCC report include repealing the de minimis trade exemption that allows Chinese goods under $800 to bypass tariffs, ending preferential capital gains treatment linked to Chinese companies on government watchlists and requiring approval of Chinese involvement in biotechnology companies operating in the U.S.

(Reporting by Anna Tong in San Francisco; Editing by Nicholas Yong)