I’ve recently been spending more time in Washington, D.C. with our Artera Government Solutions team. On a recent trip, I had the opportunity to attend the ‘Winning the AI Race’ Summit, a unique opportunity to engage in the national conversation on Artificial Intelligence – a technological breakthrough that is fundamentally reshaping every industry, including our mission to make healthcare the #1 industry in terms of customer service. My thoughts on the summit (below) were recently shared on my personal LinkedIn – enjoy!
I wasn’t around for the Space Race of the 1960s, but I can tell you exactly what JFK said in that infamous Rice University Speech (“We choose to go to the moon…”), who we were racing against (Russia), and who won (America).
And while I don’t know what it truly felt like to be around back then, I do know a little about competition – first as a young classical guitarist, then as an amateur triathlete, and finally as an entrepreneur. It is an intense, singular, do-or-die focus and there’s ALWAYS someone you’re competing against.
In July, I had a front-row seat to a crucial conversation about America’s future in artificial intelligence. And I couldn’t stop thinking about the USSR (space race), Ariadne (my guitar days), Nick (my triathlon days), and Aditya and Adnan (my entrepreneur days). America just had another Sputnik moment, although this time the race is for Artificial Generative/Super Intelligence (AGI), and we’re competing against China.
At the “Winning the AI Race” Summit in D.C., I had the chance to hear from President Trump and a broad cross-section of the administration on the consequential stakes of who wins in AI. The Summit, hosted by All-In Podcast and The Hill & Valley Forum, highlighted the opportunity for AI to reshape American industry, the global economy, and the important role of government in supporting our transition to an AI economy. Sessions were moderated by All-In Podcast co-hosts Jason Calacanis, David Friedberg, Chamath Palihapitiya and David O. Sacks with participation from Hill & Valley Forum Co-Founders Jacob Helberg, Delian Asparouhov, and Christian Garrett. President Trump signed several executive orders and issued the White House’s AI Action Plan. In addition, we heard from both industry (Jensen Huang, Lisa Su) and government (Scott Bessent, Howard W. Lutnick, Doug Burgum, Chris Wright) on how the public and private sectors are collaborating to make sure we win this race.
Here’s my summary of their blueprint for success:
1. Unlock Energy Production
The energy demands from AI are many multiples beyond the energy our nation currently generates. The stark reality is that American energy capacity has largely stagnated since the 1970s, while other nations (like China) have rapidly expanded their grids. For America to secure its place as the undisputed leader in AI, we must accelerate our energy buildout. This administration is committed to reducing regulation and making it easier to produce energy, while remaining sensible as it relates to environmental protections. My friend Matt Riley has experience building many gigawatts of capacity – it might be time for him to get back to work!
2. Sensible Regulation
Today, AI is largely unregulated. As a result, there is a patchwork of thousands of state laws that are being proposed… This trend is of significant concern to technologists due to the potential regulatory burden of compliance (anyone else have data privacy flashbacks?). Although preemption (blocking the ability of states to regulate AI for a period of time) championed by Rep. Jay Obernolte was ultimately stripped from the OBBB, this administration has made it clear that they are in favor of common-sense federal regulation and will move quickly to introduce legislation. This ranges from protecting free speech, objectivity, and American values as well as promoting open-source and open-weight AI, ensuring that startups and academics have access to the computing power and models needed to drive breakthroughs. Yara Doumit and the bipartisan AI Gang are laying the groundwork for legislation in the Senate.
3. Trade as National Security
A week before the summit, NVIDIA announced that it had been granted permission by the administration to resume the sale of its H20 chips in China. Sounds surprising? Well, the administration made a compelling pitch that maintaining AI leadership means the rest of the world building on American infrastructure. In one of the most thought-provoking statements of the day, Jensen Huang said: “Imagine if Deepseek or Kimi k1.5 only worked on Huawei chips?” As we saw with Deepseek, trade restrictions can catalyze innovation.
To maintain American technological superiority, we need to ease overseas access to infrastructure, including the most modern chips for trading partners. Similarly, the re-shoring of key industries was positioned as a national security concern. We have outsourced the supply chain of raw materials needed across many American industries (i.e., construction, pharmaceuticals) and bringing capacity back within our borders de-risks this AI race and future races to come.
While strategies may differ, there’s a strong bipartisan consensus on this fact: America must maintain its global leadership in technology and shape the future of the AI economy. The stakes are incredibly high, with trillions of dollars on the line and the immense potential for AI to be a powerful job creator and catalyst for reducing our national debt. Our shared goal is to ensure the U.S. is on the winning side of this AI race, which includes being a reliable trade partner, cultivating a robust AI talent market, and building the foundational technologies – like advanced semiconductors and energy infrastructure – essential for AI innovation.
It’s a great time to be alive, now back to work to make sure America wins this race!
