Silicon Valley to Trump: Write checks and a gameplan for AI but not regulations

Sometimes you've got to admire the shamelessness of Libertarian-loving Silicon Valley -- a region that does its best to keep the government at bay and avoid paying taxes yet doesn't hesitate for a second to ask that same government for help when it runs into trouble. Such is the moment we've reached with the development of artificial intelligence. To accelerate their AI industries, governments around the world are formulating aggressive industrial policies, including investment, technology roadmaps, and regulations. Silicon Valley, home to many of the current AI giants, has looked around and said "Gulp." Worried that their dominance is under siege from all sides, U.S. tech companies dutifully trotted to the White House this week for a summit on AI policy. And so began an awkward dance in which all players tried to reconcile a cultish devotion to the free market with the possibility of developing a more centralized approach -- despite its whiff of soul-killing socialism.