The United States Needs a Strategy for Artificial Intelligence

In the coming years, artificial intelligence will dramatically affect every aspect of human life. AI--the technologies that simulate intelligent behavior in machines--will change how we process, understand, and analyze information; it will make some jobs obsolete, transform most others, and create whole new industries; it will change how we teach, grow our food, and treat our sick. The technology will also change how we wage war. For all of these reasons, leadership in AI, more than any other emerging technology, will confer economic, political, and military strength in this century--and that is why it is essential for the United States to get it right. That begins with creating a national strategy for AI--a whole-of-society effort that can create the opportunities, shape the outcome, and prepare for the inevitable challenges for U.S. society that this new technological era will bring.