It appears that China's "doomsday” weaponry pipeline is more American than its critics realize.
Ryan Fedasiuk, a Georgetown military researcher, said that many of the concerns about the Chinese military's attempts to develop artificial intelligence are misplaced. Their tech is, in fact, American.
Fedasiuk and his Georgetown Center for Security and Emerging Technology team published recently the results of a year-long study. They used open source records to examine what technology the Chinese military buys and how much it spends on AI research.
The researcher stated that the most important thing for US policymakers was "our investigation into [People's Liberation Army]'s purchasing habits shows how Chinese military AI progress is being driven in part by American technology and capital."
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He said that American companies played a "critical role" in providing the technology, know-how and money needed to not only conduct research on military AI but also to purchase ready-made products like autonomous drones or AI-equipped surveillance systems.
This is the shocking revelation that Michael Orlando, acting head of National Counterintelligence Security Center, made after a rare public briefing. He warned that the US could not afford to lose its supremacy to China and that they would suffer severe consequences.
While American intelligence is quiet about China's acquisition and use of AI weaponry, the US quietly regulates -- not outright bans -- the use of autonomous robots with the ability to kill.
Fedasuik also noted that China doesn't seem to be focused on automated nuclear launch or lethal autonomous weapons.
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Gerogetown researchers found that this technology was the least commonly purchased in Chinese procurements between April and November 2020. However, AI or autonomous vehicles accounted for a third of all procurements.
The researcher concluded that while he and his team had "found that China is 'intelligentizing warfare' by purchasing AI systems for all sorts of applications including autonomous vehicles and intelligence analysis decision support and cyber operations," they also have "reason to doubt the most alarming predictions about China's attempts to completely automate warfare using 'doomsday-like weapons."
We should not forget that Fedasuik was a Georgetown researcher who published in Capitol Hill's favorite newspaper. Fedasuik repeatedly said that the US should do more to stop China from advancing in its artificial intelligence race.
There are many reasons to believe that the US and China have entered into a high-tech cold war in their quest for global dominance. It is ironic that one side has the expertise and money to create these killer robots. But it would be a shame for the other to want them.
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America's smart weapons are discussed in "The US Army Readies Robot Tanks Fitted with Chainguns and Missile Launchers"
Continue reading: China Secretly Develops Autonomous Killer Robot Submarines
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