French President Emmanuel Macron's recent visit to Washington highlighted how differently our two nations are thinking about the future. In March, the French government unveiled a national strategy for artificial intelligence technology that has a clear goal: make France a global leader in AI. In the last year, China and the European Union have taken similar steps. If we're serious about having a prosperous economy for decades to come, the United States should do the same. US Representative John K. Delaney (D-MD) (@RepJohnDelaney) is the founder of the AI Caucus and is the only former CEO of a publicly traded company in the House of Representatives.

Congressman John K. Delaney is the founder of the House AI Caucus and represents Maryland's Sixth District. One of the more unexpected sights within the United States Capitol lies just outside the Old Supreme Court Chamber. There you can find a plaque marking the first ever long-distance communication by electronic telegraph, which took place inside the Capitol in 1844, when Samuel Morse sent and received messages from Baltimore. Morse's first experimental line was made possible thanks to a grant from the federal government. The telegraph would go on to transform American life, allowing instant communication across vast distances.

One of the biggest problems with Washington is that more often than not the policy conversation isn't grounded in the facts. We see this dysfunction clearly on technology policy, where Congress is largely uninformed on what the future of artificial intelligence (AI) technology will look like and what the actual consequences are likely to be. In this factual vacuum, we run the risk of ultimately adopting at best irrelevant or at worst extreme legislative responses. That's why I was particularly interested to see the comments by Tesla CEO Elon Musk to the National Governors Association that "AI is a fundamental existential risk for human civilization." Musk is a tremendous innovator and someone who understands technology deeply, and while I don't agree with his assessment, his dramatic statement is a challenge to lawmakers to start seriously examining this topic.