{"id":8396,"date":"2021-10-15T21:04:12","date_gmt":"2021-10-15T21:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/TheNextWeb=1370082"},"modified":"2021-10-15T21:04:12","modified_gmt":"2021-10-15T21:04:12","slug":"sorry-former-pentagon-expert-but-china-is-nowhere-near-winning-the-ai-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/?p=8396","title":{"rendered":"Sorry former Pentagon expert, but China is nowhere near winning the AI race"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Nicolas Chaillan, the Pentagon\u2019s former Chief Software Officer, is on a whirlwind press tour to drum up as much fervor for his radical assertion that the US has already lost the AI race against China.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the Financial Times<\/a> in his first interview after leaving his post at the Pentagon, Chaillan said:<\/p>\n

\n

We have no competing fighting chance against China in 15 to 20 years. Right now, it\u2019s already a done deal.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Chaillan\u2019s departure from the Pentagon was preceded by a \u201cblistering letter\u201d where he signaled he was quitting out of frustration over the government\u2019s inability to properly implement cybersecurity and artificial intelligence technologies.<\/p>\n

And, now, he\u2019s telling anyone who will listen that the US has already lost a war to China that hasn\u2019t even happened yet. He\u2019s essentially saying that the US is a sitting duck who\u2019s safety and sanctity is predicated on the fact that China is choosing not to attack and destroy us.<\/p>\n

\n

.@NicolasChaillan<\/a>, the Pentagon’s former chief software officer, who resigned over the military’s reluctance to address the US’s “kindergarten” cybersecurity and AI capabilities compared to China’s, gave a dire warning to the American people, on Thursday’s “Wake Up America.” pic.twitter.com\/EfsCXIrxcz<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Newsmax (@newsmax) October 14, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And, let\u2019s be clear, Chaillan\u2019s not talking about a hot war. Per the FT article, he said \u201cwhether it takes some kind of war or not is anecdotal.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is what you call propaganda.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s why:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1.  The idea that the US is losing any sort of AI race to China is laughable<\/li>\n
  2.  Chaillan\u2019s outrage is purely performative<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The score: It doesn\u2019t matter how you measure things, the US is not losing the AI race to China.<\/p>\n

    Among China\u2018s top AI companies you\u2019ll find Baidu, a business with about a $55B market cap<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    Let\u2019s put that into perspective. Google is worth over a trillion dollars<\/a>. That\u2019s 18 times more than Baidu. And that\u2019s just Google. Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft are also worth a trillion and they\u2019re all AI companies as well.<\/p>\n

    There is no measure, including talent draw and laboratory size, by which you could say China is even in the same class when it comes to AI companies<\/em>.<\/p>\n

    And when it comes to AI research coming out of universities, the US again leads the world by a grand margin.<\/p>\n

    Not only does the US attract students from all over the world, but it also houses some of the world\u2019s most advanced AI programs at the university level. Between the cognitive research done at places like NYU and Harvard and the machine learning applications for engineering being invented at MIT, Carnegie Mellon, and their ilk, it\u2019s incredibly difficult to make an argument that China\u2018s academic research outclasses the US\u2019.<\/p>\n

    That\u2019s not to denigrate the amazing work being done by researchers in China, but there\u2019s certainly no reason to believe China\u2018s going to overtake the West in a matter of time by sheer virtue of its academia.<\/p>\n

    And that just leaves public-sector and military AI. What\u2019s interesting about China is that, nationally, its government gives far more support for AI research than any other nation.<\/p>\n

    Many experts feel<\/a> that China\u2018s massive investments in public sector research combined with its authoritarian approach to controlling what the public sector and academia do, could lead to a situation where China leapfrogs the US.<\/p>\n

    This, however, is conjecture. The reality is that US companies don\u2019t need government investments. Unlike the US government, Amazon isn\u2019t in massive debt to its shareholders. Amazon is one of the most profitable enterprises in the history of humanity.<\/p>\n

    And there\u2019s no law saying Amazon must work with the US government. It\u2019s free to continue making money hand over fist and pushing the philosophical limits on what wealth is or how economies work whether it chooses to play ball with the Pentagon or not.<\/p>\n

    The point is this: In China, all research is military research.<\/em><\/p>\n

    The FT article makes it apparent that Chaillan\u2019s real problem is with democracy:<\/p>\n

    \n

    He also blamed the reluctance of Google to work with the US defence department on AI, and extensive debates over AI ethics for slowing the US down. By contrast, he said Chinese companies are obliged to work with Beijing, and were making \u201cmassive investment\u201d into AI without regard to ethics.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    In some weird \u201cgive up your freedoms for the greater good way\u201d his words might make sense. Except for one thing: the one major player in the global AI game that we haven\u2019t spoken about yet is the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, more commonly referred to by its acronym DARPA<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    DARPA is the US government\u2019s version of the laboratory Q leads in the James Bond universe. It\u2019s always looking for technologies \u2013 literally any technologies, no matter how strange or unlikely \u2013 to exploit for military use.<\/p>\n

    But there\u2019s nothing fictional about DARPA or its work. Either DARPA or a DARPA-adjacent agency of similar reform is at the financial heart of thousands upon thousands of university studies and technology projects in the US every year.<\/p>\n

    For perspective: DARPA literally invented the internet, GPS, and the graphical user-interface.<\/p>\n

    I mention all of this to point out that there is no domain by which you can say the US is not leading the world in AI. I\u2019m not saying that as a patriot (disclosure: I\u2019m a US citizen who lives abroad and a US Navy veteran). I\u2019m saying it because it\u2019s demonstrably true.<\/p>\n

    In fairness, Chaillan\u2019s clarified his words since the FT article. On LinkedIn he wrote<\/a>:<\/p>\n

    \n

    For those who saw this article, I want to clarify one thing. I never said we lost. I said as it stands and if we don\u2019t wake up NOW we have no fighting chance to win against China in 15 years. I also said that they\u2019re leading in AI and Cyber NOW. Not in 10 years as some reports mention.<\/p>\n

    Of course 750 pages government funded reports always tell us we have more time than we have so no one is held accountable for missing the already past due target.<\/p>\n

    Those are just common sense fact. We are competing against 1.5B folks here. Either we are smarter and more agile or we lose. Period.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    Never let the truth get in the way of a good story eh? Per the FT article:<\/p>\n

    \n

    We have no competing fighting chance against China in 15 to 20 years. Right now, it\u2019s already a done deal; it is already over in my opinion,\u201d he said, adding there was \u201cgood reason to be angry\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    The bottom line is that Chaillan\u2019s spreading propaganda. He\u2019s employing a centuries-old racist trope called the \u201cChina Bogeyman.\u201d The US has used it for decades to justify its bloated defense budget to the public.<\/p>\n

    The idea is that US citizens should be scared of China not<\/em> because of its academic, economic, or military technologies. But because of the sheer fact that there are 1.5 billion people in that country who aren\u2019t Americans.<\/p>\n

    Chaillan\u2019s using the China Bogeyman and his former positions as an IT boss for the Air Force and the Pentagon as a political tool. Whether his goal is to run for office or a to get a lofty consulting position at a conservative-leaning organization, it\u2019s clear what the purpose of Chaillan\u2019s outlandish statements are: to pressure the public into believing their safety relies on doing whatever it takes to ward off the imminent threat posed by the mere existence of 1.5 billion people in China.<\/p>\n

    It\u2019s a baseless argument against the development of ethical AI and policies restricting the US from creating and using harmful AI technologies.<\/p>\n

    Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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