America is in the middle of one of the most intense technological revolutions in history. The artificial intelligence race is on par with things like the railroads, the WWII industrial boom, and the explosion of electricity and telephone wires across the country. It may not feel that way, but the numbers and investment don't lie.

What's most remarkable is the speed of it. For instance, in the past week, OpenAI's ChatGPT declared a "code red" across the company because they're terrified of losing the lead to Google's Gemini model. The actual AI race is only three years old. Still, we are seeing companies pour trillions into this, with dramatic actions over small leads delivered by anyone.

In OpenAI's case, it's a dire situation, "[CEO Sam] Altman said this fall that ChatGPT now has more than 800 million weekly users. But the company, valued at $500 billion, doesn't make a profit and has committed more than $1 trillion in financial obligations to the cloud computing providers and chipmakers it relies on to power its AI systems."

Things are already coming to a head over whether AI can deliver on the promises, because the amount of cash being shelled out is otherworldly.

This fact alone is stretching out things like the S&P 500. Talking to Adam Slater at Oxford Ecnonomcis, the Associated Press found, "Those symptoms include rapid growth in tech stock prices, the fact that tech stocks now comprise about 40% of the S&P 500, market valuations that appear 'stretched' beyond their worth and 'a general sense of extreme optimism in terms of the underlying technology, despite the enormous uncertainties around what this technology might ultimately yield,' Slater said."

The investment side of this is absolutely a bubble. However, this is not just an economic issue; it's rapidly becoming a national security issue as well. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth rolled out a massive push by the U.S. military and Google to bring artificial intelligence to all troops.

Google's Gemini is not alone. Palantir, one of the largest companies in this space, has a massive set of government contracts to flesh out AI in the federal government's hands. They have uses across the military and police for this technology. Notably, the founder of Palantir believes he knows who the antichrist is, or will be.

The question now is over how to manage this moment. This is, without question, a runaway train. In truth, the United States needs AI to be a runaway train for a while to ensure it defeats China on this technological front.

China's contributions to this have largely lagged behind the United States, with some exceptions. The United States is shelling out on the research and development front, and at the top of the world on the hardware front. China is in second place in everything.

Competition with China has been a central point of the Trump administration. It has animated trade policy, tariffs, sanctions, and everything.

Artificial intelligence is the modern space race on the global competitive front. It's the continental railroad to the economy. It remains to be seen what the exact impact on the world this technology will have, but the drive is there, along with the massive investment.

The top of the regulation chain is the White House. Trump has clearly stated that he wants little regulation at this time. That makes sense from a great-power perspective, where the United States is trying to maximize technological output at a critical moment of development.

Additionally, Trump is enjoying the economic boom from AI. It's lifting the markets and shoving a lot of investment dollars into the United States. No other continent or country can match the level of infrastructure development the United States is undertaking right now.

Behind him, all 50 states want in on legislating artificial intelligence, too. And some of those laws are already in effect. It's a patchwork of randomness. I get why the White House is opposing this push.

If the goal is to beat everyone else, Trump's view is correct. Maximizing America's capacity to outstrip everyone else at one task will require lowering the regulatory barriers to get us there. It's similar to Trump's Operation Warp Speed, which was a monumental success. 

Stripping out the federal regulations that hold us back consistently serves the best interests of the United States. But it's also clear AI is impacting every part of human society, from children to adults. There's no escaping this reality. People are getting nervous about all this technology running free everywhere.

I don't have an answer to those concerns, but I do know where the money and power are sitting right now, and both are aligned on expanding the role of AI and advancing it. Until that changes, the direction of this technological revolution will continue like any runaway train.

It's all gas, no brakes for AI. It'll either crash and burn, or we'll get a new era defined by the technology. Either way, that's where we're headed now, and there's no going back. Embrace it or die.