Eric Schmidt: U.S. must step up AI efforts

Eric Schmidt: U.S. must step up AI efforts

New York, 9 .3.2021

The U.S. should increase its R&D budget for AI efforts to $2 billion in 2022 – up from $1.5 billion this year – and then double it each year through 2026. That was the call made by Eric Schmidt, chairman of the U.S. government’s National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence.

During a conversation with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria on Sunday, the former Google CEO called for the U.S. to urgently focus on AI and high tech as matters of national security, ethics and privacy.

Schmidt said the government is woefully unprepared for AI – and at a time when China has set its sights on overtaking the U.S. as the world leader in AI.

He suggested that U.S. lawmakers should create incentives for public-private partnerships so that AI programs at the Department of Energy and other key agencies could be advanced.

Schmidt believes the U.S. is only slightly ahead of China in AI overall. He even sees it behind the Asians in the areas of facial recognition, supercomputing, 3D manufacturing and robotics.

These statements and claims are the gist of the National Security Commission’s report on AI released last week. The 756-page report emphasizes the need for the U.S. to invest in AI-enabled weaponry and place „wise restrictions“ on mass surveillance tools such as facial recognition.