Updates from the AI Team
A look at what we're working on.
Today’s post is authored by Geneva Kirk Drayson, a research fellow on the Artificial Intelligence team at the Foundation for American Innovation.
Dear reader of Policy Gradients,
It’s been an energetic time for the AI team at the Foundation for American Innovation. The team continues to build out its work on frontier AI, robotics, nuclear deterrence, surveillance, and the infrastructure—terrestrial and orbital—that a serious AI buildout will require. This week’s Policy Gradients post aims to give you a look at what we’ve been up to.
A few team-wide notes before the research. We launched a new Physical Intelligence project: the revolution in digital machine intelligence is thoroughly underway, but its physical-world counterpart has barely begun. The project pursues four goals — a favorable regulatory and legal climate for real-world autonomy experimentation, a clear read on the technical trajectory of robotics, an industrial strategy to keep the core technologies of physical autonomy designed and built in the U.S. and allied nations, and policy frameworks for liability, cybersecurity, and the rest of the emerging law of robotics. We also announced that Senior Fellow Dean Ball is joining OpenAI as Head of Strategic Futures; Dean is staying on with FAI as a non-resident senior fellow. The team continues to grow — we welcomed AI Program Manager Wrena Sproat and Research Fellows Geneva Kirk Drayson and Vinny Pimpale. We are also actively seeking a Senior Fellow to cover the intersection of cybersecurity and AI policy; if you think you might be a good fit, please consider applying.
Research
To support the launch of the Physical Intelligence project, Non-Resident Fellow Amelia Michael and Research Fellow Emerson Alden published “The State of Industrial Robotics.” The whitepaper evaluates the market for industrial robots and concludes that while the U.S. is not competitive in industrial robot manufacturing today, Japan and Europe are, and most components remain available outside China. This leaves room for a non-Chinese supply chain, but only if the U.S. and its allies can keep pace as the industry moves toward greater AI integration.
Research Fellow Daniel King continues his research on AI infrastructure, including the politics and civics of data center development. He has advocated appropriations to support data center buildout, and appropriations to improve U.S. government preparedness for frontier AI — including increased support for the Center for AI Standards and Innovation. In the coming months, he’ll dig further into the AI-and-space technological contingency, with an emphasis on the strategic advantages of first-mover companies and countries and the governance measures needed to address concentration of power.
Research Fellow Blaine Dillingham has been leading our work on surveillance and power concentration. He published “Time to Make a Deal: Ending the Surveillance Stalemate,” making the case for a negotiated path out of the surveillance impasse, and is researching how regulatory sandboxes can create more robust laws and promote governance futurism.
Research Fellow Vinny Pimpale has been working backwards from the dynamics that emerge as AI approaches recursive self-improvement. He published “An AI Capabilities Gap Can Endanger Nuclear Deterrence“ at AI Frontiers, with a longer nuclear-deterrence white paper on the way. Vinny is currently looking to find co-authors for his nuclear work; if this sounds like something you’d be interested in, do reach out.
Non-Resident Fellow Farrell Gregory and Director of Artificial Intelligence Policy and Chief Economist Sam Hammond published “National Orchestration and Provincial Competition: China’s Industrial Policy for AI Dominance“ in American Affairs. The piece considers how AI-focused industrial policy is orchestrated, and what the subnational dynamics between China’s provinces, municipalities, and central government reveal about their model of AI development.
Impact
Several policies areas our scholars engaged on saw progress:
FAI’s experts represented one of three organizations working with Anthropic on a review of model behaviors around freedom of expression, including political conversations, as part of Anthropic’s work on election safeguards.
The House Appropriations Committee’s report for the FY2027 Labor-HHS appropriations bill picked up Daniel’s recommendation that the Department of Labor prioritize workforce training for the skilled trades needed to build data centers and their electric generation, transmission, and distribution, encouraging the Employment and Training Administration to prioritize industry-vetted partnerships and registered-apprenticeship expansion for “AI infrastructure trades.”
Daniel also provided technical assistance on the Deterring American AI Model Theft Act of 2026, which the House Committee on Foreign Affairs voted unanimously to advance. And the Great American AI Act discussion draft from Representatives Trahan and Obernolte requested $100 million in funding for CAISI, in line with Daniel’s recommendations.
Commentary
Selected AI-team commentary:
Daniel King and Sam Hammond, “The MATCH Act Is the Missing Piece in America’s AI Export Control Strategy“
Blaine Dillingham, “The Government Surveillance Reform Act: A Practical Lever for Avoiding AI Power Concentration“
Daniel King, “America’s Defenders Need an AI Fast-Lane“
Blaine Dillingham, “A Bad Few Weeks for Mass Surveillance“
Sam Hammond, “Think Tanks Have Defeated Democracy,” in Palladium
Fellowships
We’re wrapping up the third cohort of the Conservative AI Policy Fellowship, our eight-week, part-time program for conservative policy professionals in DC seeking to understand AI and the debates surrounding emerging technology. Led by Program Manager Wrena Sproat, the cohort includes fellows across think tanks, government, industry, and academia.
Events
Our scholars have been out in the world:
Sam Hammond joined FORUM’s DC panel, “Competing Visions for Artificial Intelligence,” debating whether society should slow AI in pursuit of safety or accelerate to hold economic and geopolitical leadership. At Manifest 2026, he also hosted a conversation with Matt Southey of The Latecomer on the accelerationist philosopher Nick Land — tracing Land from the CCRU milieu through Robin Hanson on cultural drift to Hegel, and closing on China and the philosophy of history.
Blaine Dillingham argued the anti-pause side at Chicago’s first Oxford-style AI safety debate—”Should We Pause Development of Frontier Models?”—hosted by BlueDot Impact and Portal Innovations, and presented at NYU Law’s Fiduciary Duties workshop.
Daniel King spoke at “The Energy Imperative,” a SpaceNews panel on the future of orbital power systems and orbital compute.
We’ve got a lot in the works and are excited about the next few months. Thank you for following our work — we welcome any questions or feedback.
Sincerely,
The Artificial Intelligence team at the Foundation for American Innovation