China has surpassed the United States in AI by relying on government support, according to one source. (Source: Adobe Stock)

Former Military Leader Claims China Leapfrogged U.S. in AI Efforts

With a lot of talk about a new Cold War heating up with China, a military insider says China is way ahead in AI. They’re so far ahead, the U.S. can’t catch up, according to Nicolas Chaillan, former Chief Software Officer of the United States Air Force and Space Force. Chaillan recommends we give up. He did. He quit working for the government abruptly this month.

In an article found at vox.com, we get the whole story of his resignation and the fact that he isn’t the only one who feels this way. But others have a different take on our competition with China.

Chaillan is a 37-year-old tech entrepreneur. He stated that cyber defenses at many government agencies are at “kindergarten level,” and that companies like Google are doing the U.S. a disservice by not working with the military more on AI, since Chinese companies are making a “massive investment” in AI without considering ethical issues. While quitting his job because he believes America has already lost the AI race is a bit dramatic, Chaillan isn’t the only one who’s concerned about China’s dominance in this arena.

President Biden also mentioned this subject recently.

“We must shape the rules that will govern the advance of technology and the norms of behavior in cyberspace, artificial intelligence, biotechnology so that they are used to lift people up, not used to pin them down,” Biden said. “We must stand up for the democratic values that make it possible for us to accomplish any of this, pushing back against those who would monopolize and normalize repression.

China also appears to be playing catch-up when it comes to establishing standards for algorithmic ethics. Just last week, the country issued its first-ever guidelines on AI ethics that Seeflection.com reported on.

This article is chock full of links and information that would be fruitless to try and explain in a couple of paragraphs. But it is imperative that the U.S. takes precautions before charging into a future filled with autonomous cars, boundless data collection, and full-time surveillance. These are the applications that next-generation AI will enable, and if a small group of powerful tech companies and/or the US military pushes for innovation without putting safety measures in place, this world-changing technology could lead to potentially negative unintended consequences.

The big difference between China and the U.S. in the AI race is government investments and government control. Both sides have huge weaknesses that are beginning to show. Besides the supply chain issues, the U.S. suffers from a lack of manufacturing. China has manufacturing but is having severe power shortages even AI can’t halt. But both need to worry about how they proceed, according to the writer Adam Clark Estes.

“We can all agree that nobody wants China to invent a real-world version of Skynet, the all-powerful AI that takes over the planet in the Terminator movies. But we don’t want the US to do that either. And what does the finish line in this AI race actually look like? Does the U.S. really want to win at all costs?

The rest of the world might do well to attempt regulating the AI technologies being developed, as Europe has done in monitoring those imported into its countries.

read more at vox.com