America’s AI Strategy Is Falling Short

“The way to compete with China is not export control, but by investing here in R&D, by developing human capital, by convincing Chinese students to come here — that this is a good place for them to stay. This is to me kind of obvious. You almost have to be blind not to see it. But instead, right now, universities are the enemy. And we’re talking about cutting the budget of [National Science Foundation] research and I think the mentality is, ‘well industry can do all of this research.’ But … most ideas, most far out ideas, come from academia and then they get pushed by industry.”

— Moshe Vardi, Ph.D., Fellow in Science and Technology Policy and Karen Ostrum George Distinguished Service Professor in Computational Engineering at Rice University

About the Episode

We’re in a new era of discovery in the history of artificial intelligence, but rapid advances in the technology are also bringing major risks. Moshe Vardi, a leading expert in computational engineering and Baker Institute fellow, joins the podcast to discuss the ethical and strategic choices on AI facing the U.S. amid its competition with China and the unintended consequences of outsourcing our thinking to machines.

Mentioned in this episode: 

• Moshe Vardi, “Big Tech, You Need Academia. Speak Up!,” Communications of the ACM 68, no. 5 (2025): 5, https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3727870. 

This conversation was recorded on April 21, 2025, in front of a live studio audience. Learn about future live recordings of the “Baker Briefing” podcast by subscribing to our “Events Digest” newsletter.

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Transcript

A full transcript of this episode is available here. This transcript was AI-generated and has not been through editorial review.

About ‘Baker Briefing’

Hosted by David M. Satterfield,  the “Baker Briefing” podcast delivers timely analysis on breaking policy developments and other critical policy issues of the day in conversations with experts at the Baker Institute. New episodes are released weekly.

Select episodes of “Baker Briefing” are recorded in front of a live audience at Rice University in Houston, Texas. These recordings are free and open to the public. To learn about upcoming recordings and other public programming from the Baker Institute, subscribe to our “Events Digest” newsletter, delivered weekly.

This material may be quoted or reproduced without prior permission, provided appropriate credit is given to the author(s) and Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. The views expressed herein are those of the individual author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.