Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Winning the Global AI Race: Senators Discuss Ensuring US Dominance

Winning the Global AI Race: Senators Discuss Ensuring US Dominance

U.S. Capitol Building, Thursday, May 8, 2025

Credit: Erin Drumm

WASHINGTON—On Thursday, senators from the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation discussed the need to accelerate U.S. artificial intelligence innovation to maintain global leadership in AI development.

“The United States leads today, but what I would like to say is, it is a race. Leadership is absolutely not guaranteed.” Dr. Lisa Su, CEO and Chair of Advanced Micro Devices, said.


According to the 2024 Stanford AI Index, the United States currently ranks first in quantity and quality of AI models, but China has been closing the quality gap.

At a hearing Thursday, titled “Winning the AI Race: Strengthening U.S. capabilities in Computing and Innovation,” members of Congress and witnesses discussed the importance of American investment in AI development globally to preserve U.S. dominance.

“This future can be almost unimaginably bright, but only if we take concrete steps to ensure that an American-led version of AI, built on democratic values like freedom and transparency,

prevails over an authoritarian one,” Sam Altman, CEO and co-founder of OpenAI, said in his testimony.

OpenAI is a leading American artificial intelligence company and the developer of ChatGPT, a free online chatbot. OpenAI launched OpenAI for Countries on Wednesday to help grow global AI adoption using OpenAI’s tech as the foundation.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

Chinese AI firm DeepSeek shook the tech world when it launched its new AI model in January. It claimed that its AI model performs as well as OpenAI while using less energy and less advanced hardware.

“The number one factor that will define whether the United States or China wins this race is whose technology is most broadly adopted in the rest of the world,” said Brad Smith, Vice Chair and President of Microsoft Corporation. He argued that whoever creates a global network of trust in and access to their technology first will most likely win the AI race.

Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell, the top Democrat on the committee, suggested creating a “tech NATO” where the five democracies with the most sophisticated technology set rules and advisories on the technology supply chain and implementation. She emphasized the importance of creating international alliances in the technology sector.

While Democrats on the committee stressed the importance of protecting users and their intellectual property from AI through regulation, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, chairman of the committee, criticized strong regulation of AI.

Cruz said he would create a new bill “that creates a regulatory sandbox for AI modeled on the approach taken by Congress and President Clinton at the dawn of the internet.”

The Telecommunications Act of 1996, signed into law by Clinton, intended to promote competition and deregulate the tech industry.

“To lead in AI, the United States can not allow regulation, even the supposedly benign kind, to choke innovation or adoption,” Cruz said.

Several committee members emphasized the importance of the U.S. winning the AI race so that American values remain in high regard globally.

“We’re trying to win a race so that American values prevail internationally,” Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, said.

Erin Drumm is a reporter for the Medill News Service covering politics. She graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 2024 with a BA in American Studies and is now a graduate student at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism specializing in politics, policy and foreign affairs.

Read More

Just the Facts: Trump Administration Pauses International Student Visas
woman wearing blue denim jacket holding book

Just the Facts: Trump Administration Pauses International Student Visas

The Fulcrum strives to approach news stories with an open mind and skepticism, striving to present our readers with a broad spectrum of viewpoints through diligent research and critical thinking. As best we can, we remove personal bias from our reporting and seek a variety of perspectives in both our news gathering and selection of opinion pieces. However, before our readers can analyze varying viewpoints, they must have the facts.

Has the Trump administration put a hold on issuing student visas for this coming fall?

The Trump administration has paused new student visa interviews as part of an effort to expand social media screening for applicants. The State Department has instructed U.S. embassies and consulates to stop scheduling new student and exchange visitor visa appointments until further guidance is issued. However, previously scheduled interviews will still proceed.

Keep ReadingShow less
Coalition of Nonprofits, Research Institutions Fight Against Proposed Cuts at CDC Injury Center

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Getty Images, sshepard

Coalition of Nonprofits, Research Institutions Fight Against Proposed Cuts at CDC Injury Center

WASHINGTON–Shayna Raphael started promoting infant safety 10 years ago after her daughter Claire passed away due to an unsafe sleeping environment at her daycare.

The Claire Bear Foundation, which Raphael created with her husband, teaches parents about unsafe products. But first, they need the data about which products endanger babies. They rely on a little-known agency at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Injury Center. The center collects most of the data used to keep people safe from injuries and death.

Keep ReadingShow less