Tech War on China, AI Weapons’ Right to Kill, and Ukraine Seen as a Laboratory
This week, Wired featured Jake Sullivan, the White House National Security Advisor who is responsible for overseeing emerging tech policies towards China.
Silicon Valley is debating whether autonomous weapons should be lethal or not.
But first, in an interview with TechCrunch, ShieldAI’s founder who is a former Navy SEAL, spoke about drones and AI in Ukraine:
The Big Story
Jake Sullivan and the Tech War on China
This week, Wired published a magazine profile on Jake Sullivan, the White House National Security Advisor in charge of the directorate for emerging technologies at the National Security Council.
During the Trump administration, America went through a shift in its China policy. The catalyst for the change was that China, under President Xi Jinping, used advanced chips from the US to power supercomputers that surveilled Muslim minorities and trained AI systems that could enhance its military capabilities. At the same time, the Chinese armed forces were expanding their drills off the coast of Taiwan, the producer of the world’s most advanced semiconductors. Drawing on this, the US predicted that China could be ready to invade Taiwan in 2007, creating a catastrophic chip shortage that would impact everything from smartphones to medical devices and weaponry.
It became Sullivan’s top priority to prevent this scenario.
Sullivan realised he’d had a blind spot: with globalisation, the US also provided China access to sensitive technologies. By the time he joined Biden’s campaign in 2020, he believed that securing the United States lead in emerging technologies was the clearest path to fending off China’s competitive threat.
“If technology is being used more for ill than for good, if the rules of the road are being set by authoritarian competitors, if the technologies of the future are invented elsewhere and not here, that’s going to mean less security, less jobs, and less productivity in the United States. I don’t want to see that world,” Sullivan told Wired.
Jake Sullivan. Source: Wired / Jake Voss
Six months into Biden’s administration, Sullivan put the action into the plan, calling for a digital revolution to ensure that critical and emerging technologies “work for, not against, our democracies and our security.”Sullivan set up a new directorate at the National Security Council focused on advanced chips, quantum computing, and other cutting-edge tech. If the US was to get serious about competing with China, there needed to be a team at the NSC dedicated to that, just as there were teams for counterterrorism and climate change. Otherwise, the whole project risked getting swallowed up by other crises.
To lead the new NSC office on emerging tech, Sullivan recruited Tarun Chhabra, formerly an Obama NSC official who, during the Trump years, had been leading think tanks, writing about how the US and its allies could secure an advantage over China’s growing technological reach.
One of the first big wins in the Biden administration’s tech agenda was getting the CHIPS and Science Act through Congress. The bipartisan bill allocated, among other things, more than $52 billion for domestic semiconductor manufacturing - including $39 billion worth of funds for dozens of new and modernized chip facilities across the county.
The Biden administration was trying to create a blockade to prevent the most powerful chips designed by Nvidia and other American companies from reaching Chinese supercomputers.
Sullivan has since launched tech partnerships with other governments, such as India and Vietnam. He was a part of making sure that the Abu Dhabi G42 cut ties with Huwai when the $1.5 billion investment deal went through with Microsoft.
Some fear that isolating China will only accelerate the development of China’s own, homegrown technologies. Others worry that in its haste to stand up to one authoritarian regime, the US has ended up courting others.
Since the tech war started, a robust black market for banned chips has emerged in China; Chinese companies barred from accessing American chips through the US export controls have set up new corporations to evade those bans; and Nvidia started developing China-specific chips to avoid export controls.
Silicon Valley’s Debate on AI Weapons Right to Kill
In late September, Brandon Tseng swore the US weapons would never be fully autonomous: an AI algorithm should never be able to make the final decision to kill someone. A few days later, Anduril co-founder Palmer Luckey expressed his scepticism of the argument against autonomous weapons. Since then, he has been continuing that argument. Earlier this month, during a talk at Pepperdine University, he said
“And my point to them is, where’s the moral high ground in a landmine that can’t tell the difference between a school bus full of kids and a Russian tank?”
Silicon Valley was earlier on the side of caution: Luckey’s co-founder Brian Schimpf has said that there has to be “an accountable, responsible party in the loop for all the decisions that could involve lethality.”
Palantir’s co-founder Joe Lonsdale has shown a willingness to consider fully autonomous weapons. Last month, he expressed frustration that this question is being framed as a yes-or-no at all, backed by the scenario that China would embrace autonomous weapons, but the US would be slowed down by having a human making the decisions.
The US military currently does not purchase fully autonomous weapons, but the US does not ban companies from making fully autonomous lethal weapons, nor does it explicitly ban them from selling those weapons to foreign countries.
Palmer Luckey. Source: Getty Images / David Paul Morris
In the News
3D Printing in Conflict Zones: A Game-Changer
3D printing technology is revolutionizing warfare by allowing both state and non-state actors to produce weapons and munitions directly in conflict zones. Ukraine has extensively used 3D printing to create munitions such as "candy bombs" and modify Soviet-era grenades for use with drones. The technology has also been adopted in Myanmar and Syria for similar purposes, while Al-Shabaab in Somalia is experimenting with 3D printing for weaponry. The flexibility of 3D printing allows for rapid production and modification of arms, potentially shifting the dynamics of modern conflicts.
Read more at GNET.
Meet the Chinese 'Typhoon' Hackers Preparing for War
The "Typhoon" family of Chinese hacking groups poses an increasing cyber threat to U.S. infrastructure. The most notable groups include Volt Typhoon, Flax Typhoon, and Salt Typhoon, which have been involved in infiltrating U.S. critical infrastructure to lay the groundwork for potentially destructive cyberattacks. Their operations include hijacking routers and exploiting vulnerabilities in end-of-life network equipment. These hackers are seen as a preparation for potential cyber warfare, particularly in the event of a conflict over Taiwan.
Read more at TechCrunch.
Anti-AI Countermeasures in Warfare: Terra Incognita for IHL?
Anti-AI countermeasures, such as adversarial attacks, pose significant challenges to International Humanitarian Law (IHL). These techniques, designed to exploit vulnerabilities in AI systems, can lead to unintended consequences, including civilian harm and friendly fire. One example described in the article involved using 3D-printed objects to trick AI systems into misidentifying civilians as combatants. As AI technology becomes more integral to military operations, it is crucial to address how these countermeasures interact with legal and ethical frameworks in warfare.
Read more at Lieber Westpoint.
US Military Moves to Implement 5G: Key Considerations
The US military is integrating 5G technology to improve battlefield communications, enhance real-time data processing, and support autonomous systems. The Department of Defense's 5G strategy aims to communicate seamlessly between devices and services across different domains, including land, sea, air, space, and cyber. Key challenges include addressing security vulnerabilities and ensuring interoperability. The military is also focused on creating private 5G networks for its bases, improving operational efficiency and supporting emerging technologies like IoT devices and edge computing.
Read more at Military Embedded.
France Doubles Down On Space Defense Tech
At the September 2024 World Space Business Week in Paris, France announced advancements in its space defence capabilities, focusing on space deterrence, surveillance, and cooperation with commercial sectors. The French military is developing programs like Toutatis for satellite detection and Yoda to monitor space threats. The goal is to have full operational space defence capabilities by 2030, using non-destructive measures like lasers for neutralizing threats. France emphasizes the need for situational awareness in space and the integration of advanced technologies, including a successful satellite laser test funded by the French Defense Innovation Agency.
Read more at Global Security Review.
An Ethical Minefield? On Counter-Mobility And Weapon Autonomy
This article explores the role of AI and weapon autonomy in modern counter-mobility strategies, focusing on anti-tank mines. Autonomy can enhance the effectiveness of mines while complying with international humanitarian law. AI-enabled systems allow for greater control and reduce collateral damage by employing sophisticated target selection. Autonomous anti-tank mines could play a key role as Europe bolsters its defences against potential Russian threats. The ethical challenges of these systems, including meaningful human control and legal accountability, are discussed in light of their growing application in warfare.
Read more at War on the Rocks.
Anduril And Impulse Space To Collaborate On National Security Space Missions
Anduril Industries has partnered with Impulse Space to integrate their technologies for national security space missions. Impulse Space’s Mira orbital transfer vehicle will be integrated into Anduril’s Lattice software platform, allowing a single operator to manage multiple spacecraft. This collaboration will enhance capabilities in space domain awareness, space control, and classified mission operations. Both companies aim to provide agile solutions for critical U.S. Department of Defense missions in space.
Read more at Satellite Today.
