Donald Trump has ordered to prioritize the development of artificial intelligence to cope with China's progress

US President signed a decree on Monday promote the development of artificial intelligence technologies in the US government, an action seen as the beginning of a battle with China for global leadership of the region.

The plan, called American Artificial Intelligence Initiative, order government agencies to give priority to finding this type of technologywhich, according to many experts, could be crucial for the development of the economy and even for the wars to come.

"The United States should spur technological advances in artificial intelligence across the federal government, industry, and academic institutions to promote scientific discovery, economic competitiveness, and national security," he said. the decree signed by Donald Trump.

The decree recognizes the importance of developing a plan to update the United States to the advances of "strategic competitors and foreign opponents"Therefore, he added," As the pace of AI innovation increases around the world, we can not sit back and badume that our leadership is guaranteed. "

In 2017, China has presented a plan to become the world leader in artificial intelligence, with the aim of creating a valued industry in $ 150,000 million for 2030.

For their part, the European Commission and the Member States, in addition to Switzerland and Norway, pledged in December to reach a total of 20 000 million euro (22 500 million USD) of funding in the field of Artificial intelligence until 2020.

In exchange, The United States has not yet identified a similar investment figure, which some experts consider worrying and that the White House has downplayed, stressing that it is the US Congress that must decide the amount of funds devoted to this subject.

"If the administration wants its artificial intelligence initiative to be transformative, must do more than reprogram existing funds for artificial intelligence research, skills development and infrastructure development, "said Daniel Castro of the Center for Data Innovation, a group of experts that deals with technology issues.

Republican Senator Marco Rubio badured on Twitter that this initiative was a "good start" since "China is the most complex challenge facing the United States for more than half a century"and" confronting it will require a comprehensive response. "

According to the newspaper The New York Times, the Pentagon has planned this year $ 75 million to create a new office to develop artificial intelligence technologies, but many experts in this field prefer to work in private companies like Google and Amazon, not the government.

The Trump initiative should take a clearer form in the coming months, once its agencies have developed specific plans for the implementation of the decree.

(With information from EFE and AFP)