A New National Vision for an Age of Disruption and Discontinuity

More than any other driving force, the power of multiple game-changing technologies is creating the future of U.S. economic and national security. These technologies are all “dual use”, holding unprecedented opportunities for innovation, and solutions to global challenges in food, energy, health, water, and resource preservation. These technologies, which will have profound impacts on our economic competitiveness and national security, are already propelling us to the precipice of a new industrial age that could disrupt numerous industries, and AI is transforming the relationships between humans and machines. At the same time, our biggest challenger on the world stage seeks to leverage this technology revolution to extend its own geopower.

In this unfolding new age, ensuring our national security, providing prosperity for our citizens, and asserting U.S. global leadership in numerous domains rest with the strength of our ability to innovate with speed and at scale. At this historic moment of change and challenge, the Council on Competitiveness “National Commission on Innovation and Competitiveness Frontiers” has issued a call to action undergirded by 50+ strategic recommendations arrayed and organized across seven strategic pillars. The first pillar calls for policymakers and private sector leader to adopt a new “National Strategic Vision for an Age of Technological Revolution and Geo-Strategic Challenge” –

• Putting forth a new narrative on the primacy of technology and innovation in the national interest. The new competitive realities demand that U.S. leaders—in business, government, education institutions, and other key sectors—invoke an “all-of-nation” strategic vision and prioritize key initiatives that each can play in achieving global leadership in the platform technologies of the next economy, such as transformational computing (e.g., AI and quantum), energy (e.g., advanced nuclear), and advanced biology for the bioeconomy (e.g., bioscience, biotechnology, and biomanufacturing).
• Harnessing advanced computing as a force-multiplier for innovation. Advanced computing is central to the U.S. advantage in scientific discovery, technology, innovation, and capabilities in a wide range of crucial societal, industrial, environmental, and national security domains. Yet, our Nation’s high-performance computing resources—some of the world’s most advanced supercomputers—are already over-subscribed by a factor of three or five depending on the platform. The United States must develop a ten-year strategic computational initiative, investing $100 billion in research and development of computing platforms at the leading edge.
• Raising policymakers understanding of what’s possible in this age of AI. There is significant uncertainty about the future impact of AI on the economy, national security, industry, the workforce, education, society, scientific discovery, and other technology advancements. Congress should establish a bipartisan multi-disciplinary Commission on Artificial Intelligence to identify research and other steps the United States should take to ensure its global leadership in AI. The Commission should also explore scenarios based on parameters such as speed of AI/ML advancement, penetration in the economy and society, and competitor actions, gaming out the possible impacts, for example, on the macro-economy, U.S. military advantage, the labor market, and level and speed of discovery and technological advancement in different fields. These scenarios would help leaders and policymakers in different domains see a range of possibilities as they work to develop strategies and policies for an uncertain future.
• Increasing critical supply chain security. The COVID-19 pandemic revealed the fragility of global supply chains for critical goods, and the United States is dependent on metals and minerals sourced from foreign countries. As supply chains have become more complex and more global, they are more vulnerable to a broader array of disruptions. The U.S. Departments of Defense, Commerce, and Energy should lead a pilot initiative using AI-enabled digital twins of supply chains for critical technologies of high priority to national security for ongoing monitoring to identify risks and compromise to individual links in those chains. With scenario modeling, the potential for disruption could be identified, and action plans and alternative sources of supply could be identified. If the pilot succeeds, industry consortia could extend the model to economic security.
• Forging public-private partnerships to ensure U.S. access to critical materials and minerals. The United States is too dependent on non-domestic sources for key materials and minerals critical for high-tech applications and use in a wide range of industries. For example, the United States is largely dependent on China for rare earths used in fiber optics, lasers, batteries, nuclear control rods, medical imaging, metallurgy, permanent magnets, catalysts, electronics, aerospace alloys, solid state devices, and data storage devices. The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy should develop a public-private partnership to accelerate R&D in advanced, critical minerals and materials for domestic manufacturing at scale. Also, AI has created unprecedented opportunities to develop new materials at unprecedented speed, and should be fully leveraged.
• Establishing a state-of-the-art U.S. science and technology infrastructure for the 21^st century. Highways, rail, and other traditional infrastructure have been vital to agriculture, manufacturing, and the movement of goods across the economy. Today, we live in a technology-driven economy, and infrastructure for research, technology development, and innovation is just as important. However, many U.S. scientists and engineers work to conduct 21^st century R&D in facilities that are old and in disrepair, and that cannot support modern research and current laboratory practices in health and safety. Many lack sufficient electrical power, and protection against data loss and cyberattacks. Federal departments and agencies report that the average age of their facilities exceeds their 40-50-year design life, with half rated to be in poor or critical condition, and there are multibillion-dollar maintenance backlogs across multiple R&D facilities. Congress should appropriate multi-year funding to modernize aging and obsolete research infrastructure at national laboratories and universities.

These high priority recommendations are aimed at building a national conversation and consensus around new directions for the country as technology and innovation take center stage, and building new foundations for the U.S. capacity for innovation at the leading edge.