China Already Defeated America in AI, Pentagon’s Former Software Chief Says

Hanson Robotics’ Sophia, a humanoid robot, painting in Hong Kong, China.

We’ll get ’em next time, boys!

RT:

China is going to dominate the world through its advances in AI and other emerging technologies, and the US has already missed out on a chance to prevent it, the Pentagon’s recently resigned software chief has said.

“We have no competing fighting chance against China in 15 to 20 years. Right now, it’s already a done deal; it is already over in my opinion,” Nicolas Chaillan told the Financial Times in his first interview since his shock resignation last month.

Chaillan, who was the first chief software officer for the US Air Force and oversaw the Pentagon’s efforts to boost cybersecurity over the past three years, announced his resignation in September in protest against the sluggish pace of technological progress in the American military.

“Whether it takes a war or not is kind of anecdotal,” but China, which has prioritized artificial intelligence, machine learning and cyber capabilities, is on course for global domination and control of everything from media narratives to geopolitics, he insisted.

Washington might be spending three times more than Beijing on defense, but this money is being used in the wrong areas, said the French-born tech entrepreneur, who became a US citizen in 2016. AI and other emerging technologies are more crucial for America’s future than massive and high-budget hardware projects like fifth-generation F-35 fighter jets, he argued.

One thing holding the US back is the ongoing debate on the ethics of artificial intelligence, while Chinese companies are devoting “massive investment” to AI without a second thought, according to Chaillan.

Chinese firms are also actively cooperating with their government on AI, but US companies, like Google, are reluctant to work with the American authorities, he added.

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Chaillan’s resignation made a splash after he announced it in a bombshell letter in early September. He complained that bureaucracy and lack of funding had prevented him from doing his job properly, saying that he was fed up with “hearing the right words without action.”

The Pentagon was “setting up critical infrastructure to fail” by appointing military officials with no expertise in the field in charge of cyber initiatives, the 37-year-old argued. “We would not put a pilot in the cockpit without extensive flight training; why would we expect someone with no IT experience to be close to successful?”

The people running the show have inherited their power, that’s why there’s the illusion that they may be competent. But all evidence points to them being deranged and stupid.

At least China won’t censor AI truth bombs.

Attempting to build artificial intelligence while forcing it to selectively ignore some patterns and facts is contradictory.

It really exposes just how absurd our current social order is.