OpenAI shares its five-pillar blueprint for building AI infrastructure in the U.S.

Numerous local governments have taken huge strides in just the past year to embrace emerging artificial intelligence (AI) technology, whether applying it to streamline government tasks or simply establishing guidelines for its usage.

The blueprint, published Nov. 13, includes five “ambitious” pillars that could reshape American cities and counties. In an interview with the Center for Strategic & International Studies Wednesday, OpenAI VP of Global Affairs Chris Lehane likened the AI company’s five pillars to major U.S. infrastructure initiatives such as the National Highway Act of 1956 and Telco Act of 1996.

“We need to start to think big and act big in the same way that we have done in the past,” Lehane said.

The influential company’s five pillars of building AI infrastructure included the following:

1. The development of AI economic zones. The first pillar envisions federal and state initiatives to “speed up permitting and approvals” for the development of wind farms, solar arrays and nuclear reactors that would be used to power AI infrastructure. “To help incentivize local communities, a portion of the compute [the computational resources required for AI systems to perform tasks] that would be generated by these data centers would be allocated for public use,” Lehane said. “It could support public universities. It could support the build out of developer ecosystems, so that those communities would really benefit from the economic activity in and around the AI data center.”
2. The passing of a “National Transmission Highway Act.” To expand access to AI technology from sea to shining sea, the second pillar of OpenAI’s blueprint calls for a “nationwide ‘AI highway,’” that would require expanding transmission, fiber connectivity, a natural gas pipeline and a framework for wireless AI connectivity. Lehane said such an Act would address the planning, permitting and payment needed to “build out a transmission grid [that] is optimized for the delivery of the type of commerce that can be generated by AI information and AI deployment,” said Lehane.
3. Securing government backstops for high-value AI public works. For the infrastructure to take hold, the third pillar cites the need for investment. “The government can encourage private investors to fund high-cost energy infrastructure projects by committing to purchase energy and other means that lessen credit risk,” the blueprint states. “Such privately funded projects would serve the public as strategic national assets.” Lehane also pointed out the need to fund training. “There’s going to be a whole class of workers in and around the building of these facilities and serving of these facilities,” Lehane said.
4. Develop a “North American Compact” for AI. The fourth pillar of the infrastructure blueprint suggests the U.S. team up with allies to better support its vision for AI and also to counter China’s emerging AI infrastructure. “Amongst the things that this compact could support was making our supply lines more resilient,” Lehane added.
5. Reinvigorate the nation’s nuclear power sector. OpenAI views nuclear power as a key to powering AI technology in the future, and the company’s fifth pillar to building AI infrastructure seeks to strengthen and rebuild the country’s nuclear power capabilities. Lehane pointed to the U.S. Navy’s ongoing incorporation of nuclear power to power submarines as a sign of its potential. “Navy has been doing this for 75 years,” Lehane said. “They know how to do it. If we can put these things on subs, it seems like we should be able to figure out a way to put them in different places in the U.S. to help provide us that energy.”

The transcript for Lehane’s full interview with CSIS can be found at this link.

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