US government urged to spend $25bn a year on AI or risk falling behind

Congress and the White House should work together to increase annual federal spending on artificial intelligence (AI) research and development to US$25bn (€19.2bn), according to a national security think tank. This is one of a number of recommendations set out in a report – entitled The American AI Century: A Blueprint for Action – from the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), an influential Washington, DC think tank established in 2007 and funded largely by defence firms. The report also calls for the promotion of international R&D collaboration and for allies to share the cost burden of building new manufacturing facilities for the hardware used in AI technologies, such as semiconductors. If measures are not taken the US risks losing its “technological edge”, the paper says.