Comment by Gideon Lichfield

It’s a CERN or DARPA for AI. Many of the US’s biggest technological innovations in the 20th century came out of the research labs at firms like AT&T, Xerox, and IBM. But those firms still had profits in their sights, not societal goals. DARPA, however, funds research that’s crucial to US national security. CERN pools billions of dollars worth of research funding that individual countries wouldn’t be able to muster alone. Public AI could do the same, giving scientists the means to do cutting-edge research and develop AI models for uses the private sector might not. For example, a specialist medical AI for public-health research, a housing AI to help solve problems of affordable housing, or a legal AI to improve the justice system.