AI Governance in a Global Race: Balancing Security, Jobs, and Innovation

Foreign Affairs argues that governing AI requires navigating a three-way tradeoff among national security, economic competitiveness, and societal safety. It rejects the idea of a rapid “singularity” and urges deliberate policy that weighs practical tradeoffs, not idealized extremes. The piece proposes two main compromises: (1) a modest AI safety “risk tax” that nudges private labs to invest in safety research, funded in part by tax credits and bolstered by public–academic collaboration; and (2) a stronger government data and oversight framework (CAISI) with the power to veto dangerous releases and to curate public data, enhancing societal safety while limiting short-term economic costs. It also argues for a targeted approach to open-weight models and envisions a possible global nonproliferation path for AI, saying policymakers should embrace tradeoffs rather than the do-nothing option.