Cruz says winning AI race against China is ‘single most important economic question’ for America
America’s AI race against China, which has become a major point of debate as midterm elections approach, is a race filled with “coordinated” propaganda, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, warned.
In recent months, data centers and AI policy have been debated in Congress and at the kitchen tables of American families. But Cruz, who chairs the Senate Commerce Committee, told Fox News Digital much of the new opposition to data centers is being manipulated by a well-funded and coordinated campaign.
“It’s the same reason we saw Middle Eastern countries paying for anti-fracking movements,” Cruz said. “Because if they can convince America, ‘Don’t develop your oil and gas, just buy it from us,’ well, that’s great for them and terrible for us.
“The same is true on data centers. If they can convince Americans, ‘You don’t want data centers here, you want to just rely on the Chinese for AI,’ that’s great for China, and it’s terrible for America.”
Direct funding from the Chinese government into the U.S. on data center policies has not been revealed. However, in June, OpenAI announced it had banned ChatGPT accounts believed to have originated in China and said the accounts were generating social media comments and images alleging that data centers are raising electricity costs for Americans.
OpenAI said in a statement that it shut down “two clusters of ChatGPT accounts likely originating from China that [OpenAI] banned after they used our models in support of apparent covert influence operations that promoted narratives in an attempt to manipulate a legitimate debate about American AI and wider tech policies.”
Cruz called the effort to craft policy to ensure the U.S. wins the AI race “the single most important economic question facing America today.”
“If China wins, AI will be focused on espionage and propaganda and control and surveillance because that’s the Chinese Communist Party,” Cruz said. “It will be their values. They will use AI to try to control you. If America wins, I want American values to be reflected in AI. I want free speech and individualism and free enterprise and privacy to be reflected in AI, not control and power.”
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News’ Preston Mizell.