OpenAI and other AI developers recently shared their vision to beat China: strip mine America’s copyrighted works so AI developers can save time and money. It’s a sentiment echoed by tech barons like Jack Dorsey who called to “Delete all IP” in a recent tweet.

But that path will lead to exactly the wrong result. If we allow the taking of American intellectual property, China will beat us at that game every time, leading to a race to the bottom that strips the USA of its #1 position in both creative output and AI development. It will send a signal that we tolerate theft of the most valuable creative works in the world: our own.

Instead, we need to stick to our 250-year-old American tradition of providing top-notch IP protection so we don’t tell China and the rest of the world that they can take American works for free, and we should punish any country that doesn’t provide the same IP protections – just as we are doing in other trade areas.

This model principle was enshrined at our founding. The Constitution specifically protects creativity to enable the “progress of science” and the very first Congress enacted our nation’s original copyright statute, signed into law by George Washington in 1790. This strong legacy has made us the most creative and innovative country in the world.

American companies come out on top when we eliminate unfair competition by foreign countries. Our Navy was founded to shut down 18th-century pirates and free the seas for American merchants to operate fairly and freely. When the Soviets stole our atomic secrets, we didn’t give up and copy their methods. Instead, we out-innovated, out-competed, outperformed, and outfought our rivals. We didn’t give up our principles and adopt theirs, and we certainly should not capitulate to the stealing of American IP by China or any other country. We must stand up to stop the theft of American IP – not join in it.

America has a major advantage in the global competition for AI dominance – we have the greatest scientists, programmers, authors, storytellers, and creative artists in the world. All that brilliance (not to be diminished as “data”) is a vital resource desired by anyone who wants to build smarter, stronger, more capable AI. Take away the incentive to profit from creating, and you jeopardize the future content needed by ever-evolving AI models. If all that’s left is synthetic data to build new models, the process will degrade and collapse. America cannot go down this path.

Let’s face it – it is not a legitimate or fair use to scrape someone else’s music to train a commercial AI model without permission. Copying music is not necessary to protect our national security interests. Commercial AI models that copy music are doing so to build services that compete with creators and their distributors in the marketplace. AI music services like Suno and Udio seek to make a profit off using someone else’s creative genius without asking or paying. They are not protecting our national interests—they are protecting their own interests.

The way to beat China and protect America’s global leadership is to enforce American standards of copyright protection around the globe and require marketplace licensing and payment for valuable American content.

Notably, AI platforms are not asking the government to force American chip makers to provide their products for free, or for American energy companies to provide electricity at no cost. Instead, the Administration is rightly demanding that AI companies invest in America by dedicating resources to building server farms and hiring workers here. The same principle applies to investing in American creators.

AI companies respect the need to pay for their other input costs. But when it comes to creative works wanted to build their models, these companies and their investors are asking the government to rule that they can take American property owned by other American creators for free. That’s an unwarranted and unprecedented wealth transfer that will kill America’s #1 position in making the creative products the entire world wants.

Make no mistake, if we signal to the rest of the world that it’s ok to steal American creative works to feed offshore AI developers, America will be the loser. Our creative work will be taken the most because it’s the most valuable. We are the largest exporter of creative content by far. This zero-sum game will result in America losing its global position in IP, and in AI companies moving offshore to save costs. It’s a double loss.

AI companies’ ask of the government to seize valuable property and hand it to them for free will distort markets, deprive investors, and, over time, destroy the IP-based incentives that have produced the very works they seek. That’s a race to the bottom we can’t afford and one that obviously favors China. Do AI companies really expect to beat China in a battle to steal American content?

AI companies may be afraid of China – but America should not be. America has proven time and time again that it can beat China with strong IP protections. By protecting both American IP and AI, and punishing countries that steal either, we will continue to dominate in both.