Like the dawnings of the personal computer, the world wide web, and the mobile phone, the arrival of artificial intelligence (AI) has already caused seismic shifts in the ways we work, think, and connect. With the uncharted territories and seemingly infinite possibilities of a dynamic technological innovation come plenty of questions: who is responsible for regulating the rapid development of AI? What does it mean to be a leader in this space? What are we doing to ensure that we are one? What’s at stake if we aren’t?
On September 16, UW Now Live invited technologist Mike Splinter ’72, MS’74 and director of the UW School of Computer, Data & Information Sciences (CDIS) Remzi Arpaci-Dusseau to discuss the global race to establish dominance in AI and what the UW is doing to prepare its students to join it. The conversation was moderated by Mike Knetter, former CEO of the Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association and former dean of the Wisconsin School of Business.
Splinter — a former executive vice president of Intel, former chair of Nasdaq, and current board member at Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturer TSMC — started by assuring viewers that, currently, in the global AI race, the U.S. is ahead. American chip and server manufacturer Nvidia is currently the most valuable company in the world at $4 trillion, and the “big four” hyperscalers — Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Meta — have already invested nearly $400 billion in infrastructure to support the industry’s rapid growth.
“In 2024, there were around 4,000 data centers built in the U.S. This year, it’s going to be closer to 5,000,” Splinter said. “I don’t think that’s going to slow down anytime soon. We are just at the beginning of the kind of compute power that we’re going to need to supply the capability for all the AI that’s coming.”
However, the ability of the U.S. to keep pace with this global race is also closely related to the federal government’s increased involvement in industrial policy — and, as Splinter put it, “the speed of government is quite different than the speed of industry.” While the federal government has facilitated AI advancement in the U.S. by investing in companies like Intel, sanctions and tariffs on Asian companies and export controls on semiconductor and software products have hindered the U.S.’s ability to establish the manufacturing and supply-chain stronghold currently held by Taiwan, Korea, and China.
“We need an overall goal, a measurable goal that will bring together industry, government, private sector, public sector, and transcend administration so that we really can fulfill the promise of AI and stay ahead of our worldwide competition,” Splinter said.
According to Arpaci-Dusseau, CDIS has been hard at work preparing students to help the U.S. achieve that goal. “We have a strong machine-learning core. We have a strong systems group, so we build chips, and we’ve built software systems. We have strong data and information groups and translational engines,” he said. “In other words, [we have] people who, daily, work with taking computing and applying it to other domains of science. And with our iSchool, we’re focused not only on developing technology but shaping its positive impacts.”
Knetter, Splinter, and Arpaci-Dusseau answered viewers’ questions regarding the necessity of a global arms race for AI, the environmental implications of the power required to run it, the trustworthiness of its outputs, and the role of humans in an AI-centric future.
“Change is happening in the world, and change is exciting because you see the possibility, and change is concerning because you see the possible downside,” Arpaci-Dusseau said. “As a university, we can do nothing other than be a reflection of the change that’s going on in society and educate our students so that when they enter that society, they’re the best equipped to move forward.”
