Why America must lead on artificial intelligence

As stock markets wobble over fears of AI hype and the overvaluation of tech shares, it seems an unfortunate time for Donald Trump to launch an initiative boosting America’s artificial intelligence capabilities. But the White House sees matters differently. Its new “Genesis Mission,” which commits government departments to make sure adequate energy and computing power are available, has been purposely launched to remind the world that AI is not all froth – or “slop” to use the popular term.

Team Trump likens Genesis to the Manhattan Project to develop a nuclear bomb during World War Two faster than the other side. For all the typically Trumpian bombast, that’s not a foolish way of thinking about the subject. The question of who wins the race to dominate AI will have grave consequences for what kind of world we will find ourselves living in. AI really does have the potential to revolutionize industries and further enrich human societies, as well as the potential to gravely harm them if not well-implemented.

Some of what is being said about AI will indeed turn out to be hype. The boom in share valuations will no doubt turn to bust at some point, and the majority of startups which enter the sector will not survive. That is always the way with new technologies, but it doesn’t mean the technology itself is failing. Look at what happened to the tech businesses that were brave enough to invest throughout the shake-out of the dotcom boom and which, in many cases, have gone on to become the world’s largest and most profitable corporations. The internet didn’t go away because some fortunes were lost.

It is pertinent to ask to what extent governments should involve themselves in the gold rush given that politicians have often proved themselves to be poor judges when it comes to pouring taxpayers’ money into favored sectors of the economy. But Trump has spotted something others have not: that the accelerated development of AI is not just a business opportunity but a strategic necessity. Fail to create the conditions in which western businesses can take a lead in AI and we face a future in which Chinese technology will come to dominate the world to the detriment of democracies everywhere. The potential for the misuse of AI by hostile states is vast. Any country that allows its infrastructure to be run on Chinese technology risks having it immobilized in any future conflict.

Governments very much do have a role in ensuring that their AI industries can grow.  New technologies have a voracious appetite for energy, the infrastructure for which requires planning at a national and international level. Strangulate your energy markets with green targets, as many European countries have done, and AI is not going to thrive. Trump has always understood that cheap energy lubricates business. And his second administration has shown a knack for mixing innovation with realpolitik. He recently secured a deal with Armenia to allow the chip manufacturer Nvidia, which just announced surging profits, to build an AI and supercomputer hub there. Armenia is exactly the sort of country on the fringes of Asia which could all too easily fall under Chinese technological influence.

There are many people who see AI as a danger to the world. It is always the same with new technologies, and has been since Luddites in 19th-century England started vandalizing threshing machines on the grounds that they would destroy textiles jobs. AI now stands accused of the same dastardly crime – although it hasn’t as yet significantly depressed employment. Every labor-saving technology in history has been the same – its effect has been to displace labor to be employed more effectively elsewhere. Lively imaginations see AI machines taking over the world, even deciding eventually to obliterate their human creators. It makes great science fiction, though the reality is always more humdrum: of AI programs predicting which customers will buy which items, of helping retailers keep their stock to a minimum, and so on. In fact, the bigger danger lies not so much in AI suppressing us, but of malignant regimes using AI to do their jobs for them.

All that said, there are issues concerning AI which need to be addressed. There are serious concerns about how new technologies might diminish human education, character formation or natural brainpower, as this magazine discussed in our AI special in August. There’s also the matter of intellectual property. Functioning democracies have long-established laws for the ownership of ideas and creations. All these rules need to be looked at again in the age of AI.

But if lawmakers only ever fret about the potential consequences of AI and dream up ever more restrictive ways of regulating technology – as the European Union tends to do – America will miss the boat. Critics scoff that Trump knows nothing of AI and assume he is always selling out to the tech oligarchs whose riches he worships.

If AI is only half as powerful a tool as most experts predict, however, America needs to be at the forefront of its development or the country risks being outmaneuvered by China or other future rivals. Tech companies are making the running, and will always lead on innovation, but they very much need a decisive and committed government behind them.

This article was originally published in The Spectator’s December 8, 2025 World edition.