The U.S. must continue to invest in artificial intelligence to compete with China

President TrumpDonald John TrumpGillibrand backs federal classification of third gender: report Former Carter pollster, Bannon ally Patrick Caddell dies at 68 Heather Nauert withdraws her name from consideration for UN Ambassador job MORE issued an executive order this week directing federal agencies to support the development of artificial intelligence. It couldn't have come at a better time. That's because the U.S. is in a race against China to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence technology, and it's a race we can't afford to lose. "Artificial Intelligence" (AI) may bring to mind any number of futuristic pop culture references, from "Star Wars" to "Westworld", and it may seem like something that's decades or even centuries away. The reality is that AI is already here – it's in the apps we use to navigate through traffic, it protects us from spam emails and more nefarious online security threats, and it's what responds when we say "OK Google..." and "Alexa?"