Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice weighed in on the global artificial intelligence race, warning the United States must remain the "technological leader" against the "great competitor" — China.
"The United States is currently the technological leader, and we have to keep it that way. We absolutely have to win this race so that a democracy wins the race for these frontier technologies, not an authoritarian state — and China, of course, is the great competitor here," Rice said Friday on "The Story."
‘DEREGULATORY FLAVOR’: JD VANCE LAYS OUT VISION IN PARIS FOR THE FUTURE OF AI UNDER TRUMP
Earlier this week, Vice President JD Vance laid out the Trump administration's vision for the future of artificial intelligence during the AI Action Summit in Paris.
During his remarks, Vance emphasized deregulation, private-sector innovations, safety and security as well as global cooperation while touting U.S. success in AI growth.
"The vice president is absolutely right that the United States is currently the technological leader, and we have to keep it that way," Rice said.
Vance’s comments coincide with some recent actions by the Trump administration to advance AI in the United States.
In January, Trump unveiled a $500 billion AI infrastructure project called Stargate, a datacenter joint venture between investment holding company Softbank, and tech companies OpenAI and Oracle that Trump labeled the "largest AI infrastructure project in history."
The project includes an initial investment of $100 billion that is slated to grow to $500 billion over Trump’s term in office, and will build "colossal" data centers in the United States to power AI.
Rice argued there is a "role" for the federal government when it comes to the AI arms race.
"The federal government needs to keep and increase its spending in these frontier technologies and universities like Stanford and MIT and places where a lot of these breakthroughs are taking place — but also, we have the advantage of a private sector that is extremely innovative and creative," she told Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum.
During Tuesday's remarks, Vance also pushed for a "deregulatory flavor" to emerge at the conference while cautioning against the pitfalls of "excessive regulation" that could hamper a transformative industry. He also vowed that the United States would back pro-growth AI policies.
While giving "kudos" to Vance, the former secretary of state said she does "worry that some of the regulatory impulses in Europe to really restrain the technological advances of some of the American private sector are really troubling."
Vance also issued a warning to other foreign governments about "tightening the screws on U.S. tech companies with international footprints," claiming the Trump administration would not tolerate such limitations. He cautioned against working with adversaries who have "weaponized A.I. software to rewrite history, surveil users and censor speech."
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Rice noted that while the world does not fully know the threats associated with AI technology, the potential downsides are another reason democracies like the United States must win the race.
"Do you think for one minute that the Chinese will have those guardrails? No. They'll treat it like they did COVID. They'll hide about it. They'll lie about it, and so it's even another reason that the United States needs to run fast and hard. Regulation will come, but please don't let it be regulation that stops the innovative impulse that is so strong in American society," she said.
Given the "existential nature of these transformational technologies," Rice warned the innovators behind AI's development should have both knowledge and wisdom to "fully exploit" the opportunities afforded by the technology.
Fox News Digital's Diana Stancy contributed to this report.
