The Biden administration outlined the nation’s “first-ever” strategy for harnessing powerful AI in United States military and intelligence agencies while safeguarding against associated risks, with the aim of advancing the US’ technological leadership over “rivals” such as China, and addressing “adversary threats” in a national security memorandum released last week.
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Robot dog takes over tough tasks on Mount Tai
Robot dog takes over tough tasks on Mount Tai
When introducing the document in a speech on Thursday, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan made a specific mention of China, stressing that bilateral talks between the two countries had not diminished Washington’s “deep concerns” about the ways in which Beijing continued to use AI to “undermine the security of the United States and our allies and partners”.
He said China was developing a technological ecosystem with digital infrastructure “that won’t protect sensitive data, that can enable mass surveillance and censorship, that can spread misinformation and that can make countries vulnerable to coercion”.
The memo showed that the US was trying to counter China’s rise and development in a global competition over AI, according to Chen Li, a researcher with the Beijing-based think tank Anbound.
“That will strengthen US restraints on China’s development in the field of AI, escalating the tech competition between China and the US,” Chen said.