WASHINGTON: Top executives at American AI giants OpenAI, Microsoft and AMD appeared at a US Senate hearing on Thursday to outline ways they believe Washington can stay ahead of Beijing in the artificial intelligence race.

The US Senate Commerce Committee, chaired by Republican Senator Ted Cruz, is looking to cut regulatory barriers to US artificial intelligence after China’s DeepSeek shocked the world with a high-quality, affordable AI model last year.

The US tech industry has seized on that development to lobby the Trump administration for more favourable policies, arguing that promoting worldwide use of AI that reflects democratic values is a matter of national interest.

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, maker of flagship AI model ChatGPT, is testifying, as are Brad Smith, the president of Microsoft, and Lisa Su, CEO of AI chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). Microsoft is a major backer of OpenAI.

Altman told the panel he expects societal advances from AI to accelerate in the next few years through US investment. “Investment in infrastructure is critical,” Altman said during the hearing.

The US “will be not only the place where the AI revolution happens but all the revolutions after,” he said. The development of AI has depended on specialised computer chips, huge amounts of data to train large-language models, vast amounts of energy and a technically skilled workforce.

Smith told the panel that to succeed, the US will need to support companies at all layers of the AI ecosystem, and partner with allies around the world.

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2025