With America engaged in a race for global AI dominance, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has developed a framework to assess U.S. AI competitiveness compared to other nations.
The framework, unveiled in a May 21 GAO report, is designed to help analysts identify and prioritize key factors affecting AI competitiveness – and develop policy options to make the U.S. more competitive.
GAO conducted a literature review and interviewed experts to prepare the framework, which defines a nation’s competitiveness in AI as “how well it develops or deploys AI technologies compared to other nations.” Successful U.S. AI deployment, it said, depends on factors that include private and public investment, talent attraction, regulatory environments, and computing infrastructure.
“Artificial intelligence (AI) is broadly recognized as the defining technology of the 21st century, and its potential effects are often compared to the way electricity redefined everyday life in the early 1900s,” the report said. “Although AI presents risks, nations are engaged in a global competition for superiority because they recognize AI’s strategic importance.”
GAO Assistant Director Andrew Stavisky said the report, requested by a bipartisan group of U.S. senators, “is two-plus years in the making and one I’m proud of.”
In a LinkedIn post, he said the document is important because “The U.S., China, and the EU are all explicitly competing for AI leadership, and that competition has real consequences for economic growth, national security, and global influence.”
The report organizes relevant factors in assessing AI competitiveness into four pillars: Science and Technology, Human Capital, Governance, and Economy.
They are each divided into subpillars that include research and development; laws, regulations, and policies; workforce; and investment and financing.
To tailor their assessment of AI competitiveness, GAO recommended that analysts take four steps: Focus the assessment by selecting targeted outcomes of AI competitiveness; identify indicators for measurement or evaluation; conduct data analysis; and develop policy options and final product.
The report comes amid a heightening global battle for AI superiority, especially between the United States and China, which are competing over the technology militarily and to develop AI models and data center infrastructure.
President Donald Trump’s executive order, issued last year and cited in the GAO report, states that U.S. policy is to “enhance America’s global AI dominance in order to promote human flourishing, economic competitiveness, and national security.”
GAO did not attempt to assess current U.S. AI competitiveness in the report. But Stavisky said in his post that the agency is already working on Phase 2 of the framework. “More on that when we can share it,” he said.