Secretary of Defense Mark T. Esper said the US military will use artificial intelligence (AI) “legally and morally” on the battlefield and let people decide whether or not to attack a target. He also stated that the US needs to exploit the potential of AI in order to create a military force well-suited to our digital age. Secretary Esper remarked that China is now the top priority of the National Security Commission and that Beijing wants to become the world leader in AI by 2030.
China has already started investing in driverless vehicles, autonomous submarines, and advanced military aerial drones, among other things. According to Esper, the country is now planning to use them in more than one warfighting dimension. “In the future, wars will be fought not just on the land and on the sea, as they have for thousands of years, or in the air, as they have for the past century, but also in outer space and cyberspace in unprecedented ways,” said Esper. In order to top China’s progress, the US will need the government, academia, and industry to work together, as they did during World War II, to be the first to harness the power and possibilities of AI.
A Race Against Time
Geopolitical futurist Abishur Prakash also warns that China looks to AI as the next big advantage and has already begun to invest in new technologies, while also deploying AI on a bigger scale than most countries at the moment. As AI development speeds up, many in the US worry that China’s investments in the field will push it ahead in the race. Beijing has invested billions in AI funding, developed plans for specialists from overseas, and streamlined its data policies. As AI now has the potential to change the nature of warfare well into the future, China’s future looks bright.
The Chinese Communist Party has made it abundantly clear that 2030 is the new deadline for AI supremacy. To fulfill its purpose, China designed a set of tasks to be accomplished by 2020. Crucial research is needed by this time, and China must quickly become a popular destination for the best and the brightest in AI research. The country also plans to expand its AI manufacturing with one big goal in mind: to be a match for and to eventually surpass the world’s leaders in this field. Back in 2017, when the US was decreasing its science funding, China was spending more and more.
Do You Really Reap What You Sow?
“By liberating Kuwait and defeating the Iraqi military in a matter of days, American forces demonstrated our mastery of the digital revolution and rendered what was then cutting-edge Soviet technology obsolete. Our adversaries took note. And since then they’ve been trying to catch up. Five years ago, they surprised the world with how far they’d come,” Esper noted. At the National Security Commission on AI Public Conference, Ukraine was the perfect example to prove his point. In July 2014, it was Russian unmanned aerial vehicles that were making advancing Ukrainian forces seem obsolete.
By making China the top priority of the National Security Commission, instead of Russia, Esper is actually claiming that the game has changed dramatically for the US. The country is now facing more than one powerful adversary in more than one part of the warfare spectrum. As China’s plans and tactics continue to develop, so does the country’s tyrannical grip over its own people. Esper thinks there is good reason to believe that we are witnessing the creation of a 21st-century surveillance state constructed to restrict freedom of speech and basic human rights.
Fortune Favors the Bold
China’s pace of development is gaining speed, and AI is just one of several expanding fields where experts see the county making speedy advances. But is this really progress? Esper seems to think the world needs to talk about AI in a rather different tone. Science and technology are bound to keep changing as the years pass, he states, but that doesn’t mean the United States’ pledge for ethics, law, and duty must change as well. In an ever-changing world, we are faced with new challenges every day. One of them is using new technologies, including AI, in ways that support our long-established values and promote security, peace, and stability.
“America has risen to the task before and we must do so again,” Esper says, as he asks for help from government, academia and industry alike. It seems that the US wants to top China’s plans on AI, and then maintain the advantage for a long time. But that requires continuing investment and careful consideration of using AI “legally and morally”. After all, the quest for AI domination is more than a symbolic race when it comes to warfare and power. It may even prove to be the key.
