An advisor to former President Joe Biden warned President Donald Trump on Thursday that his administration could soon lose the Artificial Intelligence race to one of the country's rivals.
Ben Buchanan was the White House special advisor on AI for Biden. During Biden's term, the administration placed restrictions on AI chip sales to China to maintain a competitive advantage over the country. Trump unveiled his AI Action Plan yesterday during a summit with tech CEOs and company representatives, a plan that allows China to purchase AI chips from American companies like Nvidia.
Buchanan argued in an essay published in The New York Times on Thursday that Trump's policy is a "profound mistake."
"In other words, Nvidia’s chips will give China’s AI ecosystem, and its government, just what it needs to surpass the United States in the most critical arenas," Buchanan wrote. "AI technology could soon transform military operations, potentially enabling better hacking and sophisticated drone warfare."
"Ample evidence suggests that Chinese military suppliers prefer Nvidia chips and use AI systems trained on U.S. chips," the essay continued. "The stakes are not hard to grasp: We should not allow American troops and intelligence officers to be targeted by Chinese AI trained on Nvidia chips."
The first Trump administration seemed to understand these risks, Buchanan added. "Both administrations accused China of using advanced AI to modernize its military and to commit human rights abuses," he wrote.
Even so, Trump's policy decision appears to be driven by some tech CEOs. For instance, Buchanan says Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has lobbied the federal government to let it enter the Chinese market, which is something China's state media supported.
The policy implications may not be the worst impact of the decision, Buchanan continued.
"Worst of all, the H20 decision could fracture the hard-won bipartisan consensus on the need for American AI dominance over China," Buchanan argued.
