 Internet Education Foundation/FlickrTHE NEWS The federal government is formalizing its behind-the-scenes consultations with the new AI giants as the US battles for position in the global AI race. The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration, along with the US Department of Energy, put out an open request for comment Wednesday, asking industry leaders and experts to help lay the groundwork for new policies meant to aid and secure data centers in the coming years. “We have heard privately from many sources about the coming demand, particularly driven by AI. This is a chance to transparently create a public record for future action to meet that growing data center demand,” said NTIA administrator Alan Davidson in an interview with Semafor. Makers of massive “foundation models” like ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini have long spoken informally with policy leaders to prepare them for the next step of AI advances. “Companies are concerned about power supply. They’re concerned about security and cyber security standards. They’re concerned about the workforce,” he said. Davidson, who also serves as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications, said the federal government is also eyeing the needs of small- and medium-sized companies, academic institutions and researchers who need access to powerful data centers that now are mainly owned and controlled by private industry. KNOW MORE Policy around technological growth has become a big topic in the tech industry as the election approaches. And laws regulating AI have become a political lightning rod, particularly in California, where industry leaders and some Democratic lawmakers have called on California Governor Gavin Newsom to veto SB 1047, a comprehensive AI bill. At the same time, tech companies like OpenAI and Microsoft are looking to the Middle East for sources of funding and potentially cheaper electricity and infrastructure to build the massive new data centers they believe will be required for the next leap in AI capabilities. National security officials are already concerned about US adversaries like China and Russia stealing secrets from American companies, whose security defenses are currently vulnerable to espionage from determined and well resourced nation states. “Companies shouldn’t have to take on nation states all by themselves and we do think there’s a role for the federal government there. That’s part of what we need to hear from industry about,” Davidson said. For Reed’s view on the role of the government in AI development, read on... → |
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