The "Economic Blueprint" document recently released by OpenAI aims to cooperate with the US government and its allies to consolidate the United States' leadership in the field of artificial intelligence. The blueprint calls on the U.S. government to invest heavily in chips, data, energy and talent to cope with increasingly fierce international AI competition. OpenAI believes that the U.S. federal government’s decentralized model of AI regulation is unsustainable and expresses concerns about the actual effect of current laws, especially the Chip Act. It also recommends that the government increase investment in power and data transmission and develop renewable energy. , and develop best practices to prevent AI abuse.
OpenAI recently released a document called "Economic Blueprint" to discuss policies with the U.S. government and its allies to consolidate the U.S.'s technological leadership in the field of artificial intelligence. The blueprint mentions that the United States must attract billions of dollars in funding to acquire chips, data, energy and talent to win in the AI competition.
Chris Lehane, Vice President of Global Affairs at OpenAI, said in the foreword that although some countries have adopted an avoidant attitude towards AI and its economic potential, the U.S. government can pave the way for its own AI industry and ensure its success. Continue to maintain global leadership in innovation while protecting national security.
Currently, the federal government has largely delegated power to the states when it comes to regulating AI, and OpenAI is concerned that this approach is unsustainable. In 2024, in states alone, legislators have proposed nearly 700 AI-related bills, some of which conflict with each other. For example, Texas’ Responsible AI Governance Act imposes stringent responsibility requirements on developers of open source AI models.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman also criticized existing federal laws, especially the CHIP Act, which aims to revitalize the U.S. semiconductor industry. Altman believes that the bill fails to achieve the desired results and emphasizes the difficulties faced by the United States in building data centers and power plants, which will not help the United States' leadership in the field of AI.
The blueprint also recommends that the government should significantly increase federal investment in power and data transmission, while vigorously developing new energy sources such as solar, wind and nuclear energy. In addition, OpenAI also proposed that the government should develop best practices to prevent the abuse of AI models and simplify the interface between the AI industry and national security agencies.
On the intellectual property front, OpenAI contends that AI developers should be able to use "publicly available information," including copyrighted content, for model training. The company says it's nearly impossible to train an AI model without using copyrighted material at all.
While it's unclear how much influence OpenAI's blueprint could have on legislation, its proposal shows the company's desire to continue to play a key role in unifying U.S. AI policy. It is worth noting that OpenAI has significantly increased its lobbying expenditures in the past year and introduced a number of former government officials, showing its high priority on policy direction.
OpenAI’s “Economic Blueprint” provides new ideas for the development of U.S. AI policy. Whether its initiative can be successfully implemented remains to be seen, but its active participation in the policy-making process deserves attention. Competition in the AI field will become more intense in the future. This move by OpenAI also reflects the determination of enterprises to actively participate in shaping the future development direction of the industry while safeguarding their own interests.