Google will meet next week with US military personnel to dispel Washington’s concerns that it is helping China’s artificial intelligence (AI) program, while refusing to help the Pentagon with technological initiatives.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford, said on Thursday that the Internet giant is “helping the Chinese military advance in technology,” and that effort “is not in the national interests of the United States.” He made the comments at the Atlantic Council, American Thought event.
In Senate testimony last week, he said Google “indirectly benefits the Chinese army.” At the same hearing in Congress, acting defense secretary Patrick Shanahan expressed concern that US innovation is being used against itself. That is to say, the technology of the United States is stolen by China only to weaken the companies and the competitive military advantage of the United States.
$ 5 billion of your [China’s] The economy is the state company. The technology that has developed in the civilian world is transferred to the military world. It is a direct pipeline. Not only is there a transfer, there is also a systemic theft of US technology. UU That facilitates an even faster development of emerging technology.
General Dunford is the highest-ranking military officer in the nation. He is the chief military adviser to President Donald Trump and the national security apparatus. It is “tentatively scheduled” to speak with Google representatives in Washington D.C.
Artificial intelligence laboratory in Beijing
United States leaders are concerned that Google has opened an artificial intelligence laboratory in Beijing in 2017. The laboratory develops software such as TensorFlow, a popular artificial intelligence tool that Chinese users have downloaded two million times. He also conducts research on the understanding of natural language and market algorithms.
Among its many applications, TensorFlow (an open source project) is used for machine learning to classify, perceive, understand and predict results based on massive data. Critics say that capacity intimidates the west given that Beijing will probably use artificial intelligence and machine learning for military, espionage and other purposes for threatening purposes.
The artificial intelligence programs of the United States and China are considered among the most advanced in the world.
Withdrawal of Pentagon projects
On Sunday, Google issued a statement in response to criticism from the White House and the United States defense establishment:
We are not working with the Chinese military. We are working with the US government. UU., Including the Department of Defense, in many areas, including cybersecurity, recruitment and medical care.
In 2018, Google withdrew from Project Maven, a military program in the United States that uses artificial intelligence to analyze images collected by drones. Last week, President Trump criticized the company via Twitter for “helping China and its military, but not the United States.”
Google is helping China and its military, but not the US. Terrible! The good news is that they helped Crooked Hillary Clinton, and not Trump … and how did that turn out? – Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 16, 2019
The President referred to Google’s withdrawal last year of initiatives designed to improve the Pentagon’s technological capabilities.
Lack of control downstream
US officials are concerned that Google can not control the later use of artificial intelligence innovations from the Beijing laboratory. Downstream use means that AI designed initially for civilian purposes (such as language recognition) can be exploited along the way for applications with weapons, such as cases of military use or surveillance (Chinese).
It is a risk that exists according to Diane Greene, CEO of Google Cloud. In a blog post of June 2018, she commented:
We … we can not control all subsequent uses of our [cloud and AI] technology
On Thursday, General Dunford expressed such concerns by saying that with China, there is no distinction between civil, communist and military uses because technology (AI) will be diverted to various Chinese interests.
Siphoning the innovation of the United States
On Thursday, the four-star general said:
If a company does business in China, they will automatically be asked to have a communist party cell in that company. That will lead to the intellectual property of that company finding its way to the Chinese army. It is a distinction without distinction between the Chinese Communist Party, the government and the Chinese army.
In October 2018, thousands of Google employees protested and dozens left their jobs when the technology giant competed to build the cloud computing infrastructure of the United States Department of Defense. The Silicon Valley-based company cited ethical concerns as the main reason why it abandoned the tender for the huge $ 10 billion JEDI project.
Google’s decision in the United States seems more controversial in light of its efforts in China.
Misapplication of Google’s “Guiding Principles of AI”
In June 2018, the technological giant developed principles to govern AI. He decided that artificial intelligence (built by Google) would not be used for the design or for the deployment of weapons, surveillance or other technology that could harm people.
It is a principle that observers say does not apply to Beijing, given the Chinese military aggression in the South China Sea and its efforts to monitor its population in real time through a system of “social credit” similar to that of Great Brother (China’s social credit system is a 24/7 surveillance network that uses state-of-the-art innovation to reward and punish specific behaviors).
In his book “The One-Hundred Marathon,” author Michael Pillsbury (China expert and former White House advisor) says that Beijing influences American companies to share (and lose control of) cutting-edge intellectual property by preventing access to China’s huge market. . In the long term, it is an unfair exchange since American innovation gives rise to a rival that undermines and steals it.
China’s artificial intelligence: non-peaceful uses?
General Dunford said on Thursday:
Companies [such as Google’s AI lab] To help develop artificial intelligence in China, we are going to do two things. They are going to help an authoritarian government to exercise control. [over] Your own population. Again, our country exists for the individual. China exists for the Chinese Communist Party.
The chief general of the United States also said that such companies can make the United States military less competitive compared to the military of China due to the various applications of AI and the subsequent non-civil use of civilians. Dunford continued with:
The second thing he’s going to do is allow the Chinese military to take advantage of the technology developed in the United States … [Google] Have an artificial intelligence company in China. I think it’s a reasonable claim … [that it] Indirectly benefits the Chinese military and creates a challenge for us [maintain] A competitive advantage.
Military arms race
The Greek philosopher Aristotle believed that technology was an extension of nature. One could say that artificial intelligence and machine learning are becoming an extension of the 100 trillion neuronal connections in our brain.
In 2017, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the future of humanity belongs to artificial intelligence:
Artificial intelligence is the future, not only for Russia, but for all humanity. It comes with colossal opportunities, but also threats that are difficult to predict. Whoever becomes the leader in this sphere will become the ruler of the world.
Defense analysts see powerful military applications for AI, including virtual tests of nuclear and conventional arsenals; development of weapons; coordination of aerial drones and terrestrial robotic equipment; situational awareness and predictive results; espionage and counterintelligence; Logistics; cyber warfare and security; identify and classify enemy targets; health care of the battlefield; Combat simulation and game theory, and fast big data analysis.