AI Race May Be Too Close for Comfort

Every Friday, I present a topic or question for our merry band of thinkers, leaders, ...

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Every Friday, I present a topic or question for our merry band of thinkers, leaders, and pirates to discuss in an open thread. Here is this week’s conversation starter:

This week, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the US is “one or two years ahead of China, not five or 10” when it comes to artificial intelligence (AI).

Question: Does this concern you and what, if anything, should the US government do about it?

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Comments (5)
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  1. Cole

    Of course this is concerning. The Constitution outlines the few things for which the federal government is responsible yet the drive up our debt chasing rainbows and ignore the people they serve.

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  2. Joanie Myers

    I believe the notion of "one or two years ahead" is publicly optomistic and sounds good to Congress so we can still say we are "ahead" and continue with just a bit more effort.... But what I am more interested in is the ground truth and then add in the amount of investment China is putting in and the volume of IP theft in this realm that they have mastered and work off that assessment in aligning resources.

    We need an approach that unleashes resources and provides incentives for smart people to scrub into the mission (and no, it is not just about money; its more about removing barriers, new processes and at least a commitment to changing culture and the tune, "that is not how we have done it in the past"

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  3. Anonymous

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    1. Joe Smo

      Seems like I read sometime back way over 100,000 Chinese’s attend American universities how many Americans attend Chinese institutions of higher education.

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    Ray Salemi

    My only concern regarding the switch of administrations is that Dr. Will Roper, former Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition resigned as a matter of course. Dr. Roper wrote the groundbreaking paper "There is No Spoon" which has driven a revolution in Aerospace and Defense technology development.

    One of his initiatives is the ability to push software upgrades to AI systems straight from the developer systems to the front in response to changes in the adversary's AI. He's also revolutionized thinking around aircraft development (doing it all with models on a computer) and introducing rapid development models as have been used at Space X.

    I hope there is a place for him in the new administration.

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