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What do all artificial intelligence components have in common? They all have their “genesis in manufacturing,” as NAM Vice President of Domestic Policy Chris Phalen said recently at a Climate Week event in New York City.

And for manufacturing—and by extension, AI—to thrive, we need permitting reform as soon as possible, he added.

What’s going on:  Manufacturers “are driving [AI] innovation … creating everything that we’re talking about,” Phalen told Steve Clemons, editor at large for The National Interest and emcee of a panel discussion at “AI for Real,” a talk on industrial AI presented by Siemens and Widehall last month. (Siemens USA President and CEO Barbara Humpton spoke before the panel.)

• But to lead globally in the technology, “the U.S. need[s] everything online to get AI to where we think it can go to outcompete China,” Phalen continued. “And it’s important that we don’t get into a position where there’s a competition for scarcity of electricity. … [P]ermitting reform is going to be absolutely essential to all of that.”
• The NAM has long emphasized the importance of permitting reform—cutting the costly, often duplicative and unnecessary federal regulations involved in getting new energy projects online—in maintaining U.S. energy dominance on the world stage and surpassing competitors in AI.

Augment, not replace: Phalen also discussed the continuing, critical role of human workers in manufacturing, and how AI will supplement rather than replace employees.

• “People are definitely still in the picture,” he said. AI is not “a wholesale replacement; it still needs us. The future still needs us. Manufacturers are committed to having a people-centric business model going forward, but these are things that … are going to be able to augment what humans are able to do and innovate already.”

But seriously, permitting reform: Asked what the U.S. has “to get most right to deliver on the [AI] vision” for the U.S. discussed by Humpton earlier in the event, Phalen returned to the desperate need for permitting reform.

• “It’s permitting reform,” he told Clemons. “[A]ll of the things that are going to ‘make AI for real’ are going to require permitting, and … as it stands right now, there are myriad ways it can go wrong—not just in the kind of documentation phase, but also [the] very, very long statute of limitations that allows pretty much anyone to challenge any project.”
• China, he added, is building huge amounts of energy “generation of all kinds. … We can’t tie one hand behind our back and expect to compete with that kind of generation and innovation, frankly. So it’s permitting reform.”

Photo credit: Diane Bondareff Photography