Washington, Sep 4 (IANS) US Vice-President, J.D. Vance, has warned that America could lose the Artificial Intelligence (AI) race to China if Democrats gain control of Congress, arguing that the country must sharply expand its energy supply and accelerate the construction of data centres.
“I think there’s a very good chance that if the Democrats take control of Congress, we will lose the AI race to China,” Vance said at a White House Press briefing.
His remarks came in response to a question about public resistance to data centres. The reporter cited a Fox News poll showing 70 per cent of voters did not want a data centre in their area.
Vance acknowledged the political backlash. He said much of the opposition arose from fears that data centres would increase household electricity bills and make local communities worse off.
“The way to bridge that gap is by following the President of the United States’ lead,” he said.
Vance said President Donald Trump had insisted on protecting electricity consumers as the United States expanded its AI infrastructure.
“If you’re going to build a data center, you have to feed power back into the grid as opposed to taking power out,” he said.
The administration had also made it easier to construct nuclear and other power plants next to data centres, he said. This would allow the facilities to add electricity to the grid instead of draining existing supplies.
Vance framed the data-centre debate as part of a much broader challenge facing the United States.
“We cannot be a country that says, we’re not going to build more power, we’re not going to build more rockets, we’re not going to do anything because the regulations or the cost or the risk are just too high,” he said.
The Vice President pointed to the widening power-generation gap between the United States and China.
China had caught up with the United States in electricity generation around 2005 before moving decisively ahead, he said.
“And today, China produces three times as much power as the United States of America,” Vance said.
“The way to get around that is, as President Trump’s leadership has shown, to become a nation of builders again. We got to build more power plants.”
Vance also tied the AI contest to the coming mid-term elections. He claimed a Democratic victory would lead to higher energy prices and taxes and would interrupt efforts to revive American manufacturing.
The United States and China are competing to lead the development of advanced AI models, semiconductor technology and the infrastructure needed to operate them.
Data centres require large and reliable supplies of electricity to power computing equipment and cooling systems.
–IANS
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