Where Kamala Harris and Donald Trump Stand on the Issues That Matter Most to Scientists
Civilian research might benefit from one Trump priority, says Robert Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), a Washington, D.C., think tank. “If elected, Trump is going to push pretty hard for serious increases in the defense budget,” he predicts. “Some of that’s going to go to DARPA [the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency]. And some of the DARPA money would go to … academic research.”
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Many U.S. scientists worry Trump and Harris would both put the need to neutralize China ahead of openness in science.
Trump is thought likely to push for more restrictions, in line with his philosophy of “America first.” “I certainly expect to see [steps] including higher tariffs and limits on U.S. technology investment in China,” Atkinson says. “I’ve even heard people talk about banning Chinese postdocs from any U.S. institution receiving federal funds, although you’d get strong pushback from academia and [Trump] may decide he has bigger fish to fry.”
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“It’s a question of balancing promotion and protection of AI,” Atkinson says. “For a Trump administration it is going to be let’s just go, go, go, go, go. A Harris administration is going to be significantly on the side of protection, and making sure AI is not discriminatory.”
Atkinson expects a Harris administration will push for broader regulations comparable to those Europe has adopted, which he thinks go too far. “But if we have a Trump administration,” Atkinson says, “there’s no way that’s going to happen.”
