As the U.S. continues to wrestle with myriad concerns over the benefits and risks of artificial intelligence (AI), China has already emerged as an AI superpower with a clear focus on the use of data and analytics to achieve global dominance. This poses significant short and long-term economic and national security implications for all Americans, from every walk of life and across every corner of our nation. AI has already begun to alter the global landscape, if not the balance of technological, economic, political, and military balance of power. Indeed, according to McKinsey and the Stanford University AI Index, China ranks second in the world in global AI vibrancy and has “accounted for nearly one-fifth of global private investment funding in 2021, attracting $17 billion for AI start-ups.” This is not to say America is absent from the AI race. In fact, the Stanford University AI Index reveals that the U.S. leads the world in private investment funding for AI, which was 3.5 times larger than the amount invested in China. The U.S. leads the world in newly funded AI companies, which is more than the European Union, the United Kingdom, and China combined.

Full opinion : America’s data illiteracy imperils its worldwide lead in artificial intelligence.