Do we really want Facebook and Amazon to rule AI?

A government commission is currently considering an innovation that could be as transformational for Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a hadron collider is for physics. It's called a National Research Cloud, and right now the federal National AI Research Resource Task Force (NAIRR) is determining how we can develop such a cloud to broaden access to computing and data and spur basic and non-commercial AI research. At stake may be rates of investment in basic scientific research not seen since the days of the Cold War.