OpenAI Unveils 'Economic Blueprint' for US AI Leadership

OpenAI 'Blueprint' Calls on US to 'Act Big' on AI | PYMNTS.com

OpenAI has issued what it calls its "economic blueprint" for artificial intelligence (AI). The document, published Monday (Jan. 13), includes the tech company's argument for how and why the U.S. must "win on AI." "Today, while some countries sideline AI and its economic potential, the U.S. government can pave the road for its AI industry to continue the country's global leadership in innovation while protecting national security," Chris Lehane, OpenAI's vice president of global affairs, wrote in a foreword to the document. Lehane likened the situation to the invention of the automobile. Cars were invented in Europe with some of the first autos introduced in the U.K. There, he argued, the industry's growth was hamstrung by regulation. "America, meanwhile, took a very different approach to the car, merging private-sector vision and innovation with public-sector enlightenment to unlock the new technology and its economic -- and ultimately, with World War I looming -- national security benefits," he said. It showed the country's ability to "think big and act big," Lehane said, arguing the same thing needs to happen with the AI sector. PYMNTS wrote about the company's proposal in November, noting its call for the creation of specialized economic zones where states can fast-track permits for AI facilities in exchange for offering computing power to public universities. A central focus is expanding energy capacity, especially in the Midwest and Southwest. Lehane told CNBC at the time that the American AI industry will need about 50 gigawatts of power by 2030, more or less the output of 50 nuclear reactors. To address this demand, the company calls for leveraging the U.S. Navy nuclear expertise for civilian reactors and passing a "National Transmission Highway Act" to modernize power infrastructure. Meanwhile, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a recent Bloomberg interview that incoming President Trump has a "real opportunity" to improve on the CHIPS Act, designed to revitalize the U.S. semiconductor industry by attracting investment from the world's top chipmakers. "The thing I really deeply agree with [Trump] on is, it is wild how difficult it has become to build things in the United States," Altman said in the interview. "Power plants, data centers, any of that kind of stuff. I understand how bureaucratic stuff builds up, but it's not helpful to the country in general. It's particularly not helpful when you think about what needs to happen for the U.S. to lead AI. And the U.S. really needs to lead AI."

OpenAI advocates for more funding and 'AI economic zones' to drive innovation - SiliconANGLE

OpenAI advocates for more funding and 'AI economic zones' to drive innovation OpenAI has laid out a new "economic blueprint" for the artificial intelligence industry that aims to ensure America remains at the forefront of innovation. In a blog post that introduced the new document, the company stresses that it believes in America "because America believes in innovation", and tries to position itself as a champion of tech leadership in the country, while also raising the alarm over the prospect of Chinese rivals catching up. The company appears to be trying to create a sense of urgency regarding the need for more funding. In the document, it stresses that there is about $175 billion in global investment capital that has been earmarked for AI startups. And it warns that if American companies don't attract most of that money, it could instead flow into Chinese-backed companies, expanding that country's leadership in the AI industry at the expense of the U.S. OpenAI is calling for stricter export controls on frontier AI models to prevent such a scenario, saying that access should be limited to the U.S. and allied nations only, similar to what the U.S. government is doing with computer chip technology. That follows a decision last year by the company to start restricting access to its own technology. At the same time, OpenAI is pushing for a more unified approach to regulate the AI industry in America, saying this should be done at the national level, rather than relying on a patchwork of state rules. Its strategy for regulation is based on four key pillars it says are critical to AI leadership - chips, data, energy and talent. In addition to regulation, the company also outlined some ambitious plans for building the country's AI infrastructure. In its document, it calls for the creation of "AI Economic Zones", which sound similar to the U.K.'s proposed "AI growth zones" that were announced by its Prime Minister Keir Starmer yesterday. Within these economic zones, it calls for more lenient rules that would enable the construction of new solar, wind and nuclear power plants to be fast-tracked. It also wants to link these zones through a "National AI Infrastructure Highway" that would connect regional power and communications networks. Each of the regions would specialize in a different aspect of AI, based on its local economy, OpenAI said. For instance, it suggests that Kansas might become a hub for AI-powered agriculture, while Pennsylvania or Texas could become proving grounds for AI energy innovation. It envisions that these states could work more closely with local industries to ensure wider adoption of AI technologies, accelerating innovation. In addition, the company says it might be necessary for AI companies to have access to intelligence information, and to do that it should build more secure data centers with classified computing clusters, where it can keep its frontier models safe. OpenAI said the blueprint is the first step in a wider "Innovating for America" initiative that aims to ensure AI technology will ultimately benefit all Americans, regardless of their background. On January 30, the company's chief executive officer Sam Altman (pictured) will travel to Washington DC to meet Trump administration officials and detail its plans for AI-driven economic growth. OpenAI also discussed its stance on intellectual property in the document, and it's here that its ideas begin to get more controversial. It argues that AI systems should be able to learn from "universal, publicly available information" without any restrictions. That appears to be an effort to bolster its argument that scraping the internet falls under "fair use" doctrine. However, while defending its own rights to scrape the web for more data, OpenAI also calls for a crackdown on "unauthorized digital replicas", including some foreign AI firms that it says "make no effort to respect or engage with the owners of IP rights". It goes on to say that if the U.S. and its allies don't attempt to address this issue by initiating sensible measures designed to enhance AI in the long-term, "the same content will still be used for AI training elsewhere, but for the benefit of other economies". In other words, OpenAI appears to be arguing that it's okay for it and other American AI companies to help themselves to any and all public data, but the government should make efforts to prevent those from less-friendly nations from doing the same.

OpenAI urges US to prioritize AI funding, regulation to stay ahead of China

(Reuters) - OpenAI on Monday laid out its vision for artificial intelligence development in the U.S., saying the country needs outside investment and supportive regulation to stay ahead of China in the race for the nascent technology. "Chips, data and energy are the keys to winning AI" and the U.S. needs to act now to craft nationwide rules that can help secure its advantage, the AI startup said in a 15-page document called its "Economic Blueprint". The move comes just days before President-elect Donald Trump takes office, bringing with him an administration that is widely expected to be more friendly to the tech industry with former PayPal executive David Sacks as its AI and crypto czar. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman also donated around $1 million to Trump's inaugural fund, making him one of the several executives looking to improve their ties with Trump. "There's an estimated $175 billion sitting in global funds awaiting investment in AI projects, and if the U.S. doesn't attract those funds, they will flow to China-backed projects --strengthening the Chinese Communist Party's global influence," OpenAI said in the document. It also outlined proposals for export controls on AI models, which it said should be out of the reach of adversary nations that may be more likely to misuse the technology. The startup plans to host an event in Washington D.C. later this month to discuss its proposals. Microsoft-backed OpenAI has been looking to drum up support for its plan to turn into a for-profit business as it looks to capture even more funding to stay ahead in the costly AI race, after raising $6.6 billion last year. (Reporting by Deborah Sophia in Bengaluru; Editing by Leroy Leo)

OpenAI Urges US to Prioritize AI Funding, Regulation to Stay Ahead of China

(Reuters) - OpenAI on Monday laid out its vision for artificial intelligence development in the U.S., saying the country needs outside investment and supportive regulation to stay ahead of China in the race for the nascent technology. "Chips, data and energy are the keys to winning AI" and the U.S. needs to act now to craft nationwide rules that can help secure its advantage, the AI startup said in a 15-page document called its "Economic Blueprint". The move comes just days before President-elect Donald Trump takes office, bringing with him an administration that is widely expected to be more friendly to the tech industry with former PayPal executive David Sacks as its AI and crypto czar. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman also donated around $1 million to Trump's inaugural fund, making him one of the several executives looking to improve their ties with Trump. "There's an estimated $175 billion sitting in global funds awaiting investment in AI projects, and if the U.S. doesn't attract those funds, they will flow to China-backed projects -- strengthening the Chinese Communist Party's global influence," OpenAI said in the document. It also outlined proposals for export controls on AI models, which it said should be out of the reach of adversary nations that may be more likely to misuse the technology. The startup plans to host an event in Washington D.C. later this month to discuss its proposals. Microsoft-backed OpenAI has been looking to drum up support for its plan to turn into a for-profit business as it looks to capture even more funding to stay ahead in the costly AI race, after raising $6.6 billion last year. (Reporting by Deborah Sophia in Bengaluru; Editing by Leroy Leo)

OpenAI presents its preferred version of AI regulation in a new 'blueprint'

OpenAI on Monday published what it's calling an "economic blueprint" for AI: a living document that lays out policies the company thinks it can build on with the U.S. government and its allies. The blueprint, which includes a forward from Chris Lehane, OpenAI's VP of global affairs, asserts that the U.S. must act to attract billions in funding for the chips, data, energy, and talent necessary to "win on AI." "Today, while some countries sideline AI and its economic potential," Lehane wrote, "the U.S. government can pave the road for its AI industry to continue the country's global leadership in innovation while protecting national security." OpenAI has repeatedly called on the U.S. government to take more substantive action on AI and infrastructure to support the technology's development. The federal government has largely left AI regulation to the states, a situation OpenAI describes in the blueprint as untenable. In 2024 alone, state lawmakers introduced almost 700 AI-related bills, some of which conflict with others. Texas' Responsible AI Governance Act, for example, imposes onerous liability requirements on developers of open source AI models. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has also criticized existing federal laws on the books, such as the CHIPS Act, which aimed to revitalize the U.S. semiconductor industry by attracting domestic investment from the world's top chipmakers. In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Altman said that the CHIPS Act "[has not] been as effective as any of us hoped," and that he thinks there's "a real opportunity" for the Trump administration to "to do something much better as a follow-on." "The thing I really deeply agree with [Trump] on is, it is wild how difficult it has become to build things in the United States," Altman said in the interview. "Power plants, data centers, any of that kind of stuff. I understand how bureaucratic cruft builds up, but it's not helpful to the country in general. It's particularly not helpful when you think about what needs to happen for the U.S. to lead AI. And the U.S. really needs to lead AI." To fuel the data centers necessary to develop and run AI, OpenAI's blueprint recommends "dramatically" increased federal spending on power and data transmission, and meaningful buildout of "new energy sources," like solar, wind farms, and nuclear. OpenAI -- along with its AI rivals -- has previously thrown its support behind nuclear power projects, arguing that they're needed to meet the electricity demands of next-generation server farms. Tech giants Meta and AWS have run into snags with their nuclear efforts, albeit for reasons that have nothing to do with nuclear power itself. In the nearer term, OpenAI's blueprint proposes that the government "develop best practices" for model deployment to protect against misuse, "streamline" the AI industry's engagement with national security agencies, and develop export controls that enable the sharing of models with allies while "limit[ing]" their export to "adversary nations." In addition, the blueprint encourages that the government share certain national security-related information, like briefings on threats to the AI industry, with vendors, and help vendors secure resources to evaluate their models for risks. "The federal government's approach to frontier model safety and security should streamline requirements," the blueprint reads. "Responsibly exporting ... models to our allies and partners will help them stand up their own AI ecosystems, including their own developer communities innovating with AI and distributing its benefits, while also building AI on U.S. technology, not technology funded by the Chinese Communist Party." OpenAI already counts a few U.S. government departments as partners, and -- should its blueprint gain currency among policymakers -- stands to add more. The company has deals with the Pentagon for cybersecurity work and other, related projects, and it has teamed up with defense startup Anduril to supply its AI tech to systems the U.S. military uses to counter drone attacks. In its blueprint, OpenAI calls for the drafting of standards "recognized and respected" by other nations and international bodies on behalf of the U.S. private sector. But the company stops short of endorsing mandatory rules or edicts. "[The government can create] a defined, voluntary pathway for companies that develop [AI] to work with government to define model evaluations, test models, and exchange information to support the companies safeguards," the blueprint reads. The Biden administration took a similar tack with its AI Executive Order, which sought to enact several high-level, voluntary AI safety and security standards. The executive order established the U.S. AI Safety Institute (AISI), a federal government body that studies risks in AI systems, which has partnered with companies including OpenAI to evaluate model safety. But Trump and his allies have pledged to repeal Biden's executive order, putting its codification -- and the AISI -- at risk of being undone. OpenAI's blueprint also addresses copyright as it relates to AI, a hot-button topic. The company makes the case that AI developers should be able to use "publicly available information," including copyrighted content, to develop models. OpenAI, along with many other AI companies, trains models on public data from across the web. The company has licensing agreements in place with a number of platforms and publishers, and offers limited ways for creators to "opt out" of its model development. But OpenAI has also said that it would be "impossible" to train AI models without using copyrighted materials, and a number of creators have sued the company for allegedly training on their works without permission. "[O]ther actors, including developers in other countries, make no effort to respect or engage with the owners of IP rights," the blueprint reads. "If the U.S. and like-minded nations don't address this imbalance through sensible measures that help advance AI for the long-term, the same content will still be used for AI training elsewhere, but for the benefit of other economies. [The government should ensure] that AI has the ability to learn from universal, publicly available information, just like humans do, while also protecting creators from unauthorized digital replicas." It remains to be seen which parts of OpenAI's blueprint, if any, influence legislation. But the proposals are a signal that OpenAI intends to remain a key player in the race for a unifying U.S. AI policy. In the first half of last year, OpenAI more than tripled its lobbying expenditures, spending $800,000 versus $260,000 in all of 2023. The company has also brought former government leaders into its executive ranks, including ex-Defense Department official Sasha Baker, NSA chief Paul Nakasone, and Aaron Chatterji, formerly the chief economist at the Commerce Department under President Joe Biden. As it makes hires and expands its global affairs division, OpenAI has been more vocal about which AI laws and rules it prefers, for instance throwing its weight behind Senate bills that would establish a federal rule-making body for AI and provide federal scholarships for AI R&D. The company has also opposed bills, in particular California's SB 1047, arguing that it would stifle AI innovation and push out talent.

OpenAI Calls on U.S. Government to Feed Its Data Into AI Systems

To hear OpenAI tell it, the U.S. can only defeat China on the global stage with the help of artificial intelligence. OpenAI wants you to think of AI like a car. Europe invented the car, but heavy regulations prevented its widespread adoption there. In laissez-faire America, the car dominated the culture. OpenAI wants the U.S. to do that again. On Monday the company behind ChatGPT published AI in America: OpenAI’s Economic Blueprint, a whitepaper that calls on Washington to let AI determine the country’s future. AI in America is a slight 15-page document with an AI-generated photo on its cover that shows an architect’s desk overlooking a futuristic cityscape. The picture and 15 pages seem fine at first glance. But like so much of the stuff attached to AI, both the image and the outline for economic prosperity seem vague and grotesque the more you inspect them. The picture’s coffee cup has no handle. The words written on the pages of the picture look like unreadable smudges. The economic blueprint contains calls to action that ask the government to turn over public secrets to large private companies. The more you look, the more things fall apart. OpenAI’s Economic Blueprint 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 led and shaped by autocrats, but that is the growing risk we face, while the economic opportunity AI presents is too compelling to forfeit,†reads an opening note from OpenAI vice president of global affairs Chris Lehane. “Shared prosperity is as near and measurable as the new jobs and growthâ (opens in a new window) that will come from building more AI infrastructure like data centers, chip manufacturing facilities, and power plants.†And how should America accomplish such ambitious goals? By sharing as many of its secrets as possible with AI companies. “As appropriate, share national security-related information and resources that it alone maintainsâ€"such as briefings on security threats to the industry and high-level results of testing US and non-US AI modelsâ€"with US AI companies pursuing advanced research,†the economic blueprints says. It goes further. OpenAI always wants the feds to share their "unique expertise with AI companies, including information about how to secure their IP against industrial security threats and mitigate potential cyber, chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear CBRN and other risks that are heightened by increasingly powerful models.†And of course, there’s all that wonderful data just sitting around 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 fields where vital data is disproportionately government-held,†the blueprint says. “In exchange, developers using this data could work with government to unlock new insights that help it develop better public policies.†The economic blueprint also notes that “infrastructure is destiny†and that the U.S. is in a unique position to create jobs and get ahead of China. All it has to do is focus on building infrastructure for AI systems, if not people. “In the AI era, chips, data, energy and talent are the resources that will underpin continued US leadership, and as with the mass production of the automobile, marshalling these resources will create widespread economic opportunity and reinforce our global competitiveness,†it says. What does that mean? “Seizing the moment and building the infrastructure needed to produce enough energy and chips to drive down the cost of compute and make it 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 termâ€" ultimately supporting the kind of breakthroughs and innovations that drive lasting economic growth.†That’ll work, provided AI ends up being as important to the long-term future of the world as OpenAI and all the other AI companies would have you believe. OpenAI published its economic blueprint for America the morning the Biden White House announced sweeping new regulations of the industry. Biden’s new regulations will create a tiered list of countries that AI companies do business with. On tier one is the U.S. and 18 of its allies. Those countries are free of restrictions. China and Russia are on tier three and no AI companies can do business with them. The rest of the world is in tier 2. They can have a little AI, as a treat. But the White House will set caps. “In its last days in office, the Biden Administration seeks to undermine America’s leadership with a 200+ page regulatory morass, drafted in secret and without proper legislative review,†NVIDIA said in a blog post about the new regulations. “This sweeping overreach would impose bureaucratic control over how America’s leading semiconductors, computers, systems and even software are designed and marketed globally.†These seem to be the kinds of burdensome regulations that OpenAI railed against in its economic blueprint. But it’s also mostly focused on countries other than the U.S. Altman and OpenAI have long attempted to thread the needle of calling AI a revolutionary technology that needed to be unleashed while also claiming it's dangerous and in need of serious regulation. But the regulation-friendly Democrats are no longer in power. Everything could change in a week. Elon Musk is no fan of Altman and OpenAI and, for now, he’s close to the incoming president. It’ll be interesting to see how OpenAI’s calls for loose government regulation and widespread access to federal data are met by the new President and his Musk-backed administration.

OpenAI's new "blueprint" urges AI investments to beat China

Why it matters: The ChatGPT maker is looking to solidify its position in Washington as a new administration takes power -- and Elon Musk, who has feuded with and sued the company, heads to D.C. at Trump's side. What they're saying: AI "is an infrastructure technology, it's like electricity," and right now, "there's a window to get all this right," OpenAI VP for global affairs Chris Lehane told Axios. Key recommendations in OpenAI's blueprint: Between the lines: Microsoft, Google and other tech giants have many big irons in the Washington fire and face regulatory scrutiny and antitrust lawsuits on multiple fronts. The bottom line: Lehane frames OpenAI's recommendations as an effort to prove once again the U.S.'s historic ability to "think big, act big, build big" -- and keep an edge over China in the global AI race.

OpenAI Emphasizes China Competition in Pitch to a New Washington

OpenAI's top executives are planning to host events in Washington DC and two key swing states to bolster support for investment in artificial intelligence as the company adapts to the biggest change in the US political landscape since ChatGPT launched. Later this month, Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman and others at OpenAI will host a gathering for policymakers in Washington to discuss a new "economic blueprint" for AI, the company said. The sweeping policy proposals, released Monday, call for the public and private sectors to work together in areas such as energy and infrastructure to keep the US ahead of China -- a pitch likely to appeal to the incoming Trump administration. The San Francisco-based startup also plans to hold events in the coming months in Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Alabama to announce new AI projects in each state, OpenAI Vice President of Global Affairs Chris Lehane said in an interview with Bloomberg News. OpenAI is framing the announcements as part of a new "Innovating for America" initiative to boost economic activity around AI in various parts of the country. Over the past year, OpenAI and Altman have pitched the Biden administration to help pave the way for building more data centers and energy resources needed to develop AI. Now the ChatGPT maker, like other AI companies, is adjusting to new uncertainty around the incoming Trump administration's AI plans. President-elect Donald Trump is expected to repeal key parts of the Biden administration's AI agenda, including a 2023 executive order on artificial intelligence. Trump's supporter Elon Musk has also gained newfound influence in Washington, sparking concerns that the billionaire could pursue policies that favor his own companies, including startup xAI, a rival to OpenAI. In recent months, OpenAI has expanded its policy team in Washington, including by hiring a lobbying firm run by Jeff Miller, a well-known figure in Trump's orbit, according to a filing. Altman also announced a $1 million donation to Trump's inaugural fund and plans to attend his inauguration, Bloomberg has reported. With its new economic blueprint, which builds on the company's previous policy proposals, OpenAI focuses on two areas of intense interest to Trump during his first term: domestic economic growth opportunities and concerns about China. "I've been struck by how much the incoming administration is really focused on the importance of AI because of our national security," Lehane said. He added that there's a "recognition that OpenAI is really important to American success when it comes to making sure US AI does prevail" over China. In the policy document, OpenAI calls for the development of "AI economic zones" in various parts of the country to speed up the permitting processes for building AI infrastructure such as solar arrays, wind farms and nuclear reactors, as well as funding research and education programs. OpenAI also suggests infrastructure funding should be supported through a global "Compact for AI" among the US and allied nations. And OpenAI repeatedly urges the government to support "democratic AI" that is "shaped by the values the US has always stood for," or risk losing ground to Chinese AI efforts. "There is an element of a Sputnik moment," Lehane said, citing the rapid advancement of China's AI technologies, including the recent release of a competitive chatbot from Chinese startup DeepSeek. "We've been talking about the importance of democratic AI prevailing over PRC autocratic AI. Maybe sometimes people thought that was an abstract conversation. I think it's a very real conversation."

OpenAI Courts Trump With Vision for 'A.I. in America'

Cade Metz reported from San Francisco, and Cecilia Kang from Washington. In December, Sam Altman, OpenAI's chief executive, donated $1 million to President-elect Donald J. Trump's inaugural fund, joining a number of other tech executives who are working to improve their relationships with Mr. Trump. Now, he and his company are laying out their vision for the development of artificial intelligence in the United States, hoping to shape how the next presidential administration handles this increasingly important technology. On Monday, OpenAI released what it calls its economic blueprint for "A.I. in America," suggesting ways that policymakers can spur development of A.I in the United States, minimize the risks posed by the technology and maintain a lead over China. "We believe America needs to act now to maximize A.I.'s possibilities while minimizing its harms," Chris Lehane, OpenAI's head of global policy, wrote in the 15-page document. "We want to work with policymakers to ensure that A.I.'s benefits are shared responsibly and equitably." OpenAI launched the A.I. boom in late 2022 with the release of the online chatbot ChatGPT. The company continues to lead the field but faces countless competitors. One of its biggest rivals, xAI, is led by Elon Musk, who has developed a close relationship with Mr. Trump. Many A.I. companies and independent experts believe that technologies like ChatGPT can increase economic growth by accelerating work and research in areas as far-flung as computer programming, medicine, education and finance. But continued development of these technologies requires enormous amounts of raw computing power and electricity. OpenAI and its rivals are racing to expand the pool of giant computer data centers needed to build and operate their A.I. systems, which will require hundreds of billions of dollars in new investment. With its new economic blueprint, OpenAI hopes to encourage government policies that can facilitate that additional infrastructure. Most notably, the company has called on policymakers to allow significant investment in American A.I. projects by investors in the Middle East, though the Biden administration has been wary of such investment. OpenAI argues that if countries like the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia do not invest in U.S. infrastructure, their money will flow to China instead. "Are those countries going to be building on U.S. rails or are they going to be building on C.C.P. rails?" Mr. Lehane said in an interview, referring to the Chinese Communist Party. He described nations like the Emirates and Saudi Arabia not as allies but more as "swing states" that will choose the United States or China for A.I. investments. OpenAI has also asked the government to take a light approach when creating regulations meant to ensure the safety and security of technologies built by OpenAI and its American rivals. (The New York Times has sued OpenAI and its partner, Microsoft, accusing them of copyright infringement of news content related to A.I. systems. OpenAI and Microsoft have denied those claims.) Last year, California lawmakers tried and failed to pass a bill that would impose restrictions on tech companies building A.I. systems. OpenAI executives argued that the federal government, not states, should control regulations related to the safety and security of A.I. development. "That would just create real dissonance, both on a national security and economic competitiveness front," Mr. Lehane said. Mr. Altman will begin a charm offensive with an event on Jan. 30 in Washington, where he will discuss the future of A.I. development with lawmakers, economists and Trump administration officials and demonstrate new OpenAI technology that he believes will show the economic power of A.I.

OpenAI to emphasize China competition in new pitch for policy changes By Investing.com

Investing.com -- OpenAI's leading executives have announced plans to host events in Washington DC and two key swing states, aiming to strengthen support for investments in artificial intelligence (AI). This move comes as the company adapts to significant shifts in the US political landscape since the launch of ChatGPT. Later this month, OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman, along with other top personnel, will convene a meeting with policymakers in Washington. The purpose of this gathering is to discuss a new "economic blueprint" for AI, according to the company. The policy proposals, which were made public on Monday, urge the public and private sectors to collaborate in areas such as energy and infrastructure. This is part of a strategy to maintain the US's lead over China in AI, a pitch that is likely to resonate with the incoming Trump administration. OpenAI, based in San Francisco, also intends to host events in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Alabama in the upcoming months. The company will announce new AI projects in each of these states, as stated by OpenAI's Vice President of Global Affairs, Chris Lehane, in an interview with Bloomberg News. These announcements are being framed as part of a fresh "Innovating for America" initiative that aims to stimulate economic activity around AI across the country. Over the last year, OpenAI and Altman have been urging the Biden administration to facilitate the construction of more data centers and the development of energy resources required for AI. Currently, OpenAI and other AI firms are adapting to the uncertainty surrounding the incoming Trump administration's AI strategy. The President-elect, Donald Trump, is anticipated to revoke crucial elements of the Biden administration's AI agenda, including a 2023 executive order on artificial intelligence. Elon Musk, a supporter of Trump, has recently gained more influence in Washington. This has raised concerns that Musk might advocate for policies that benefit his own companies, including startup xAI, which is a competitor to OpenAI.

OpenAI Warns US of Losing $175 Bn to China

OpenAI has cautioned that the United States risks losing an estimated $175 billion in global investment for AI projects to China-backed initiatives. In its newly released Economic Blueprint, the company emphasised the urgency of attracting these funds to maintain the nation's leadership in artificial intelligence and counter the influence of the Chinese Communist Party. "If the US doesn't attract those funds, they will flow to China-backed projects -- strengthening the Chinese Communist Party's global influence," OpenAI said in its report. The blueprint calls for a unified national approach to foster innovation while implementing responsible regulations for AI development. OpenAI advocates for policies that protect public interests, promote free-market competition, and ensure developers and users can responsibly guide AI tools. The company also emphasised the importance of preventing government misuse of AI for coercion or citizen control. To advance its vision, OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman will launch the Innovating for America initiative in Washington, DC, on January 30. This event will preview AI advancements and discuss their potential for driving economic growth across the country. OpenAI plans to engage with states nationwide to ensure AI's benefits are distributed widely. OpenAI is also promoting the economic benefits of AI infrastructure development."This will create tens of thousands of skilled-trade jobs, boost local economies through spending and indirect job creation, and modernise our energy grid in the near term," the company said. OpenAI expressed its belief in the nation's ability to lead in innovation, saying, "We believe in America because America believes in innovation." The Economic Blueprint, described as a living document, will be updated as OpenAI gains insights from its work. Meanwhile, NVIDIA has strongly criticised the Biden administration's new "AI Diffusion" rule, set to impose restrictions on global access to AI chips and technology. The company argues that the regulation, expected to take effect in 120 days, threatens to undermine U.S. leadership in artificial intelligence and stifle innovation worldwide. The Biden administration has introduced new restrictions on the export of US-developed computer chips used in artificial intelligence (AI) systems to prevent rivals like China from accessing advanced technology. Ned Finkle, vice president of government affairs at NVIDIA, said, "The Biden Administration now seeks to restrict access to mainstream computing applications with its unprecedented and misguided 'AI Diffusion' rule, which threatens to derail innovation and economic growth worldwide". He further noted that under the previous Trump Administration, policies had fostered a competitive environment that allowed U.S. industries to lead in AI innovation without compromising national security.

OpenAI wooed Democrats with calls for AI regulation. Now it must charm Trump.

CEO Sam Altman will kick off a national tour in D.C. this month, arguing that government investment in artificial intelligence can bring shared economic prosperity for non-coastal Americans. ChatGPT maker OpenAI will launch a multistate tour to push for massive infrastructure spending by the incoming Trump administration to support companies working on artificial intelligence. The campaign tries to recast OpenAI, the leading representative of the AI boom during the Biden administration, in a more populist light ahead of Donald Trump's inauguration. OpenAI became a fixture in White House AI policy debates after CEO Sam Altman made his political debut after ChatGPT's launch in late 2022. He won over Congress, and especially Democrats, by calling for new AI regulations and warning of the technology's potential for catastrophic harm. The company's new tour, part of an initiative launched Monday called "Innovating for America," will visit North Carolina, Alabama, Pennsylvania and New York, among other stops. OpenAI will argue the states can benefit from the construction of new data centers for use by AI developers, and the electric grid upgrades needed to power the facilities. OpenAI's campaign kicks off with an event with Altman on Jan. 30 in Washington, where he will face a tougher crowd than he did during previous trips to the capital. Trump has signaled that he supports investing in AI infrastructure, a priority for the tech donors shaping his administration, including Elon Musk and venture capitalists David Sacks and Marc Andreessen. But those same Silicon Valley advisers to the president-elect, including Musk, have in recent months singled out OpenAI's Altman as the poster boy for everything they see as wrong with U.S. AI policy. Their complaints include that AI rules enacted by Biden via executive order favor incumbents like OpenAI over start-ups, and that its blockbuster chatbot ChatGPT is "woke AI" programmed to give politically biased answers. Chris Lehane, OpenAI's vice president of global policy, said that the company's new initiative wasn't intended to appeal to a particular political party. "AI -- because it's so important for our national security, because it's so important for economic growth -- is an issue that transcends traditional partisan politics," he said in an interview with The Washington Post. "It's not Democrat AI, it's not Republican AI, it's American AI." OpenAI's new policy initiative calls for an AI "highway" that modernizes the electric grid to support the huge power needs of the data centers used for AI development. It envisions the creation of special AI economic zones around the United States with fewer restrictions, to spur AI projects. The company first floated the policies in November but in its updated proposal released Monday emphasizes the national security risks of ceding AI supremacy to China. OpenAI also argues that building data centers and new sources of energy can deliver economic benefits to a wide range of Americans. "We have a chance to get this right [and] make sure that folks from all walks of life and all the states can actually participate," Lehane said. He said the current AI boom could have more equitable outcomes than previous digital waves that mainly enriched "particular segments of people on the coasts." Leading tech companies are reorienting themselves politically as Trump returns to office. Meta this month elevated Republican Joel Kaplan into its top policy role, replacing British liberal politician Nick Clegg. Meta, Google, Amazon, Microsoft and OpenAI's CEO Altman have each donated $1 million to Trump's inaugural committee. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Post. Lehane, a former aide to President Bill Clinton, is in some ways an unusual corporate ambassador to a second Trump administration. He leads a policy group that has been dominated by Democrats, including vice president of global affairs Anna Makanju, a veteran of the Obama administration who crafted Altman's political debut. Last year, OpenAI's office in Washington brought on its first Republican, congressional lead Matt Rimkunas. The company recently began working with Republican lobbyist Jeff Miller, who has deep ties to Trump's political operation. Lehane, an experienced corporate strategist, has previously worked on campaigns for Airbnb. Most recently, he helped the crypto lobby, successfully using an attack campaign to warn politicians against taking anti-crypto positions. To see OpenAI prosper under Trump, Lehane is using arguments familiar from his previous campaigns for tech corporations, including Airbnb, promising to find a way to share the economic benefits of cutting-edge technology with regular folks. Lehane said that as the OpenAI tour swings through different states, he plans to demonstrate to local people how advancements in AI can enrich residents and their communities. OpenAI has made general statements claiming that superintelligent AI will be a net positive for humanity since its founding as a nonprofit in 2015. With "Innovating for America," Lehane is challenging himself and the company to produce tangible results. Building data centers, giant warehouses of computers that guzzle power, creates a temporary influx of construction work and economic activity. But once fully stocked with expensive computing gear and fully operational, they create relatively few long-term jobs. "There's jobs that come with the construction. There are some jobs that come with the operation. The revenue that the state gets, that's meaningful," Lehane said. He added that there was "a lot more you can do," without specifying how OpenAI might widen the local benefits of data centers. Lehane said he plans to meet with local schools and universities on his road trip. The company's plans also mention helping state governments access the computing power needed to apply AI to their own unique datasets, such as agricultural data in Kansas. While Lehane prepares his pitch to lawmakers and local officials, Altman has been responding to jabs at OpenAI from Silicon Valley's Trump-allied right wing. In November, Sacks, Trump's pick for "AI and crypto czar" and co-host of the popular tech podcast "All-In," called OpenAI a "piranha" for moving away from its nonprofit roots. The company is currently restructuring itself to remove its original nonprofit board, a move opposed by Musk in a lawsuit that claims he and other OpenAI funders were unfairly tricked by Altman. Sacks's investment firm Craft Ventures has backed xAI, a start-up Musk founded to compete with OpenAI. Altman addressed some of the barbs in recent weeks, saying in a podcast interview with the Free Press that Musk was "clearly a bully." The OpenAI CEO also distanced himself from the outgoing president, telling Bloomberg News that Trump had an opportunity to create much better tech policy than Biden had. Altman also said that he didn't support the ambitious Chips Act, signed by the president to support the U.S. semiconductor industry, because it had been a disappointment. But the public spats obscure significant financial ties. Trump-supporting investor Andreessen has railed against leading AI companies quashing start-ups, but his venture firm has a stake in both OpenAI and Musk's rival xAI. Andreessen's firm, which has billions of dollars invested in crypto start-ups, was a major donor to Fairshake, the super PAC that financed Lehane's recent crypto campaign. If Trump heeds Lehane's calls for a landmark government infusion into AI, Musk and other competitors to OpenAI could also benefit. When OpenAI goes to Washington this month, Lehane said the message will be clear: "America has to win in AI."