If the United States is going to have the golden age that President Trump has promised, it must win the gold medal in the race with China for AI supremacy. The consequences far surpass the 1960s race to the moon, as AI will be driving the force for economic and military leadership in the decades ahead.
AI means improved and lower-cost healthcare by finding more rapid cures for diseases, optimizing energy production and consumption, enhancing agricultural production, and much more.
With the unveiling of its low-cost, highly effective DeepSeek app, China landed a body blow against the United States in this competition, creating shock waves among some in the U.S. tech sector. Fortunately, President Trump and tech leaders kept this in proper perspective. The president referred to this as a “positive” and said it should be “a wakeup call for our industries that need to be laser-focused on competing to win.”
Winning means having the U.S. lead in AI development. But it also means ensuring that American values, such as respect for individual liberty and the freedom to achieve, will be at the heart of the future AI technology we use.
Since coming into office, President Trump has taken three important actions that position the U.S. for AI victory.
First, he has dared the nation to dream, noting the immense progress that is possible with AI. This involves attracting major investments in the United States both for AI research and investments in energy centers that are needed to power the AI revolution.
Second, President Trump is getting the government out of the AI development businesses. Of particular note, he reversed an executive order from President Biden that imposed undue reporting requirements on this emerging industry while subjecting it to extensive regulatory scrutiny.
Charging headlong into AI regulation before AI has even been developed is a classic case of putting the cart before the horse. A December 17 bipartisan U.S. House of Representatives report found that "Regulations should target specific known issues or problems; tailor definitions, requirements, and consequences narrowly; reduce uncertainty rather than increase it; and focus on improving the ability of the private sector to innovate and creators to thrive.”
Andrew Ferguson, appointed by President Trump to chair the Federal Trade Commission, has also addressed this. He said, “The Commission must not charge headlong to regulate AI. Such regulation could strangle this nascent technology in its cradle or move the development of the technology to foreign states hostile to our national interests.”
President Trump has also thrown down the gauntlet to the European Union, making clear he will not stand by as they attack American tech companies that are at the forefront of developing AI. The EU has imposed billions of dollars in fines against U.S. tech companies for arbitrary and capricious reasons.
As the president said in his concluding remarks to the Davos Economic Forum on January 23:
“These are American companies. Whether you like them or not, they’re American companies, and they (the EU) shouldn’t be doing that. And that’s – as far as I’m concerned, it’s a form of taxation. So, we have some very big complaints with the EU.”
U.S. AI success will also get a boost from increased merger and acquisition activity so that new technologies can scale faster. By changing merger guidelines and taking an overtly hostile view of mergers and related business combinations, the Biden administration imposed a chilling effect on these transactions.
According to Bain & Company, annual strategic deal value in the technology sector was down 40 percent in 2024 from the average from 2015-2022. This followed a precipitous fall across the board in merger and acquisition activity in 2022 and 2023.
The U.S. currently has the AI lead over China. And while China aims to catch up here and surpass us, as they have in other areas, the U.S. must remain vigilant to ensure this does not happen. The stakes are enormous, and by staying the course through tried-and- true American research, development, and innovation, the U.S. will thrive, making this another American century.