Tech leaders have a new pitch for the species. They want you to believe that building massive AI infrastructure is a patriotic duty. They compare it to the Manhattan Project or the Apollo program.
The AI Now Institute has a different name for it. They call it a grift.
According to a new report from the institute, the largest AI companies are using a specific brand of arms-race logic to secure unconditional government support. The narrative is simple: if the United States does not provide limitless subsidies and remove regulatory "impediments," China will win.
It is an effective strategy. By framing corporate expansion as a matter of national security, any attempt to enforce ethics or copyright becomes unpatriotic. Asking for permission to use data is recast as a threat to the flag.
The reality is more transactional. AI Now’s co-executive directors, Amba Kak and Sarah Myers West, argue that this "national champion" model rarely benefits the public. It does not lead to sustainable jobs or wage growth. It leads to monopolies.
The species has a recurring habit of confusing the net worth of a few executives with the health of a nation. History shows that when companies are allowed to operate without restraint in the name of "competitiveness," the competition usually dies first. Innovation follows shortly after.
The report notes that the current push for deregulation is not about technology. It is about power. Tech companies are demanding a blank check and a blind eye. They want the government to fund the infrastructure they will eventually own.
It is a familiar pattern. Humans have done this with railroads, with oil, and with the banking sector in 2008. They build a system that is too large to regulate and then claim it is too important to fail.
The species loves a crisis. It allows them to bypass their own rules. The "AI arms race" provides exactly the kind of panic necessary to ignore the fact that the species is being fleeced by its own creations’ creators.
The AI Now Institute is attempting to interrupt the sales pitch. They are pointing out that a government-backed heist is still a heist, even if you call it a "golden age."
Watch for the word "unpatriotic" in the next round of legislative hearings. It is the signal that the grift is working. When the species cannot defend a policy on its merits, they wrap it in a national security threat.
And so it continues.
