Witnesses highlight national labs, universities and training as critical to sustaining U.S. AI leadership

Industry witnesses told the Senate Commerce Committee that the United States’ network of national laboratories and research universities is essential to maintaining leadership in artificial intelligence and accelerating scientific discovery.

Sam Altman said national labs are partners in scientific work and that OpenAI has made some resources available to labs in service of research. “This will be one of the most important contributions that AI makes to the world,” Altman said, describing how models can accelerate scientific discovery.

Brad Smith argued the national‑lab‑to‑industry pipeline is a “string of pearls” that drives innovation: curiosity‑driven research at labs and universities feeds startups and larger companies. Witnesses also described partnerships—public‑private collaborations that combine federal research funding, university expertise and industry deployment capacity.

Senators emphasized skills and talent as an equally urgent need. Witnesses said the United States should continue to invest in higher education, vocational training and high‑skilled immigration so firms can recruit the engineers, hardware designers and electricians needed to build and operate AI infrastructure. Multiple senators described bipartisan bills and programs intended to expand scholarships and workforce training; Altman and others said industry should help scale education and make tools available early so workers adapt as job roles change.

Ending: Senators and witnesses agreed on the importance of sustained federal investment in basic research, national laboratories and workforce programs, and on the need for continued collaboration between government, universities and the private sector to preserve U.S. AI leadership.