U.S. Government Commission Pushes Manhattan Project-Style AI Initiative

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 stressed that public-private partnerships are key in advancing artificial general intelligence, but did not give any specific investment strategies as it released its annual report.

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"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 software company 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.

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