Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt on Sunday urged US lawmakers to increase the funding for research and development in the artificial intelligence space to prevent China from dominating the global AI market. Schmidt warned that if the US failed to do so, it would spark national security and privacy concerns, ultimately becoming a national emergency.
The former Google CEO spoke to CNN’s Fareed Zakaria in an interview, whereby he predicted that the US could lose its edge in Artificial Intelligence “fairly quickly” in the next decade given China’s progress. He also said that the US is falling behind in facial recognition technology and supercomputers too.
“The government is not today prepared for this new technology,” Schmidt said. He also noted that AI’s use to produce and spread harmful information is a “threat to democracy” and could eventually be deployed as a weapon of war.
“We believe this is a national emergency and a threat to our nation unless we get our act together concerning focusing on AI in the federal government and international security,” Schmidt further added.
The warning comes as China and its companies also continue their dominance in the 5G technology, leaving the US far behind while also gearing up to take the lead with 6G.
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