November 7, 2023
Dear Friends and Family,
Penned on Nov. 4, 2023: Technology should be our country’s forte, as we have led the world in technological advancement over at least the last one hundred years. We have the talent, the knowhow and the experience. But we have no strategy to win the war and China does. We must take a page out of the World War II playbook where our government and private enterprise worked together from a technological standpoint, and it resulted in a win.
Today we are siloed. The government’s AI strategy is individually agency based. They are not working together as a government entity let alone working in partnership with Big Tech. Big Tech on the other hand is trying to run the government with their employees stomping for social justice and their employer supporting them. Government partnership with private enterprise is the first unification step that must transpire to win the technology war. The two entities must forge a unified technology strategy together.
This partnership is very unlikely to occur until there is a recognition of the problem and the challenge the Chinese Communist Party is presenting. That concern must be mutually shared by both partners and the government needs to lead to get us there. Then most probably a full-time commission of the top technology visionaries -- who fully understand the positives and potential negatives of AI – needs to be charged with fashioning a strategy for the country. This strategy would undoubtedly become the strategy for the free, democratic world. It will take a cadre of leaders to pull it off, but the leader of the free world has to kick it off and set it up. Unfortunately, that visionary leadership is not in place today. The challenge to the American people is to select that leader. Our future way of life depends on it.
Following writing the above on Nov. 4th I learned of President Biden’s new AI Executive Order. To describe it kindly, it is a 36-page order of bureaucratic crap directing all agencies in the Federal Government to direct AI’s use to promote and preserve his political agenda – nothing on strategy, nothing on partnering with private enterprise, nothing on AI’s use to stimulate economic growth and enhance national defense. Further, it does not address any use of AI to create a “Social Credit System” a la that of China intended to control the citizenry in a tyrannical fashion. This is his only executive order concerning AI. I wonder if past presidents had domestic social issues and the long-term future of the planet (climate change) as their only priorities with little consideration for the future prosperity of our country, how we would have fared in the industrial revolution, in leveraging invention of the automobile, airplane, and computer, and in the World War II conflict. Most disappointing!! See if you interpret the excerpts from the executive order the same way.
Happy Learning, Harley
Dear Friends and Family,
Penned on Nov. 4, 2023: Technology should be our country’s forte, as we have led the world in technological advancement over at least the last one hundred years. We have the talent, the knowhow and the experience. But we have no strategy to win the war and China does. We must take a page out of the World War II playbook where our government and private enterprise worked together from a technological standpoint, and it resulted in a win.
Today we are siloed. The government’s AI strategy is individually agency based. They are not working together as a government entity let alone working in partnership with Big Tech. Big Tech on the other hand is trying to run the government with their employees stomping for social justice and their employer supporting them. Government partnership with private enterprise is the first unification step that must transpire to win the technology war. The two entities must forge a unified technology strategy together.
This partnership is very unlikely to occur until there is a recognition of the problem and the challenge the Chinese Communist Party is presenting. That concern must be mutually shared by both partners and the government needs to lead to get us there. Then most probably a full-time commission of the top technology visionaries -- who fully understand the positives and potential negatives of AI – needs to be charged with fashioning a strategy for the country. This strategy would undoubtedly become the strategy for the free, democratic world. It will take a cadre of leaders to pull it off, but the leader of the free world has to kick it off and set it up. Unfortunately, that visionary leadership is not in place today. The challenge to the American people is to select that leader. Our future way of life depends on it.
Following writing the above on Nov. 4th I learned of President Biden’s new AI Executive Order. To describe it kindly, it is a 36-page order of bureaucratic crap directing all agencies in the Federal Government to direct AI’s use to promote and preserve his political agenda – nothing on strategy, nothing on partnering with private enterprise, nothing on AI’s use to stimulate economic growth and enhance national defense. Further, it does not address any use of AI to create a “Social Credit System” a la that of China intended to control the citizenry in a tyrannical fashion. This is his only executive order concerning AI. I wonder if past presidents had domestic social issues and the long-term future of the planet (climate change) as their only priorities with little consideration for the future prosperity of our country, how we would have fared in the industrial revolution, in leveraging invention of the automobile, airplane, and computer, and in the World War II conflict. Most disappointing!! See if you interpret the excerpts from the executive order the same way.
Happy Learning, Harley
SEEKING WISDOM FOR AMERICA – SEGMENT 18
THE TECHNOLOGY WAR
PROBLEM DEFINITION
Effective application of new technologies will determine the winner of the technology war and quite possibly the overall conflict as it has in the past. Artificial Intelligence is undoubtedly a technology which has capability to dramatically change our lifestyle, prosperity, and global society like no other in history. The associated changes could both be positive or negative dependent on the choices the world makes in its application.
On the Positive Side: In healthcare AI can be used to rapidly analyze thousands of scientific articles for insights leading to breakthroughs in new drugs, treatment, or clinical processes. Wearables or implanted mechanisms can monitor an individual on a continual basis for changes and provide alerts to seek specific treatment faster than an individual can do themselves.
In day to day living AI can power robots to do household chores, cook meals, or even provide companionship. AI can be utilized to provide us with driverless cars and trucks. In an AI smart home AI can determine menus for food, inventory your refrigerator and pantry, resulting in a grocery list that can be transmitted to a grocery store and be delivered to your house by self-guided drones.
From a military aspect, drones can be equipped with satellite imagery and AI-based vision and then flown as a squadron for an airborne attack on any enemy. Robots can become foot soldiers capable of fighting battles in any terrain in any weather conditions.
In education, AI can be used to accelerate learning from kindergarten to universities by personalizing instruction after AI has analyzed the student’s physical and mental health conditions and then developed an understanding of the individual’s learning habits.
These illustrations are only a starting point for the use of AI technology in a positive way.
On the Negative Side: Medical and educational algorithms could introduce bias based on race, gender, age, income, etc. Individual personal data can be captured and used to benefit others for profit or behavioral control. AI replacement of people doing physical and mental tasks could result in massive unemployment creating chaos in society as a whole. This could lead to government behavioral control as is being developed in China. From a 12/2021 Business Insider article:
THE TECHNOLOGY WAR
PROBLEM DEFINITION
Effective application of new technologies will determine the winner of the technology war and quite possibly the overall conflict as it has in the past. Artificial Intelligence is undoubtedly a technology which has capability to dramatically change our lifestyle, prosperity, and global society like no other in history. The associated changes could both be positive or negative dependent on the choices the world makes in its application.
On the Positive Side: In healthcare AI can be used to rapidly analyze thousands of scientific articles for insights leading to breakthroughs in new drugs, treatment, or clinical processes. Wearables or implanted mechanisms can monitor an individual on a continual basis for changes and provide alerts to seek specific treatment faster than an individual can do themselves.
In day to day living AI can power robots to do household chores, cook meals, or even provide companionship. AI can be utilized to provide us with driverless cars and trucks. In an AI smart home AI can determine menus for food, inventory your refrigerator and pantry, resulting in a grocery list that can be transmitted to a grocery store and be delivered to your house by self-guided drones.
From a military aspect, drones can be equipped with satellite imagery and AI-based vision and then flown as a squadron for an airborne attack on any enemy. Robots can become foot soldiers capable of fighting battles in any terrain in any weather conditions.
In education, AI can be used to accelerate learning from kindergarten to universities by personalizing instruction after AI has analyzed the student’s physical and mental health conditions and then developed an understanding of the individual’s learning habits.
These illustrations are only a starting point for the use of AI technology in a positive way.
On the Negative Side: Medical and educational algorithms could introduce bias based on race, gender, age, income, etc. Individual personal data can be captured and used to benefit others for profit or behavioral control. AI replacement of people doing physical and mental tasks could result in massive unemployment creating chaos in society as a whole. This could lead to government behavioral control as is being developed in China. From a 12/2021 Business Insider article:
The CCP has been constructing a moral ranking system for years that will monitor the behavior of the enormous population – and rank them all based on their “social credit.” Like private credit scores, a person’s social score can move up and down depending on their behavior. The exact methodology is a secret – but examples of infractions include bad driving, smoking in un-smoking areas, buying too many video games, wasting money on frivolous purchases and posting on social media.
The Challenge of the Technology War is to gain the positives from the technology while minimizing the negatives plus accomplishing it faster and better than China, as we are the only two countries in the game. Additionally, protecting ourselves from a technological attack.
Meeting the Challenge: China and the United States are approaching AI development in very different ways. China began in 1980 with a long-term strategy for world domination, incorporating AI as a fundamental element of the strategy. Their approach is top-down management with set goals for the state to accomplish. In doing so, the state directs Chinese technology enterprise.
The U.S. is approaching the war without a grand strategy. We are relying on six big American tech firms (Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, IBM, and Apple) to develop and apply AI within the country with the philosophy that a free-market approach will win. So, gaining the positives and minimizing the negatives and doing both faster than the Chinese is in the hands of the six Big Tech firms. The only recent action on the part of our government was identifying Vice President Kamala Harris as the Czar of AI. From such action or lack thereof, I conclude they don’t believe we are in a technology war.
With respect to protecting our country from a technological attack, two such potentials have been identified. The first is an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) attack on our electricity grids. Such attacks are relatively easy to do on a regional or national basis. ISIS, al-Qaeda, or Syria could enact a regional attack. A national attack is a bit more complicated, but China or Russia could enact such an attack today and North Korea and Iran are not far behind in having the same capability. Such an attack could result in a total loss of electricity throughout the country for at least a year per the EMP Commission and would lead to a catastrophic collapse of our civilization per former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich. On March 26, 2019, President Trump issued an executive order to assess the risks of such an attack. President Biden rescinded the executive order on January 20, 2021, his first day in office. For more on EMP, access www.learningwithharley.com/6-electromagnetic-pulse-EMP.html.
The second potential technology attack is a Cyber Attack, many small ones of which we have already experienced. A 2016 FBI report estimates that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has more than 30,000 military cyber spies dedicated to such hacking.
WISDOM ON POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS -- EXCERPTS
TECHNOLOGY RENEWAL OF AMERICA: As the global economy staggered through 2008 it became increasingly clear that Technology, economics, national security and geopolitics, though always related, were fast becoming inseparable. The ability to innovate and adapt now underwrites a nation’s military, economy and geopolitical power to an extent never seen before.
All these transformational forces have led us to an inflection point and created three opportunities for renewal. First, we sit atop an untapped reservoir of national power: the ingenuity and spirit of the American people. Given access to opportunity, Americans will drive our country forward, yet we have too long neglected this timeless principle. Second, we are in the midst of a global technological revolution. New advances in everything from artificial intelligence to biotechnology to microprocessors have the potential to spur economic growth and strengthen our national security if we lead the way. Third, in the digital age, control over data confers national power. Just like we shaped the post-World War II era, we can make a digital world that protects the privacy and rights of individuals and ensures the free, prosperous flow of data.
The national renewal agenda should focus on these three areas of opportunity – talent, technology, and data. A commitment to investing in our nation’s talent could generate new opportunities up and down the income ladder, restoring the American dream. Meanwhile, technological and data leadership could spur innovation, which would in turn boost productivity and economic dynamism. Together, they would reverse the cycle of stagnation that holds our country back and form the foundation of the great American renewal.
The Building Blocks of the National Renewal Agenda: Global leadership in talent, technology, and data holds the key to renewal but is not guaranteed. We are in a race for each.
Cultivate Our Nation’s Talent: The great American renewal, begins with people. It has three parts. First, we must improve the quality of our schools by expanding school choice, committing to free expression, and valuing civics and the formation of good citizens. Second, we must create new workforce training programs and accord job training and community colleges the same respect – and financial support – our country directs toward a four-year college education. Finally, we should compound American talent through a strategic immigration policy that secures our borders, preserves our sovereignty, and protects our security, while at the same time attracting the world’s best talent in service of American innovation, prosperity and strength.
Win the Race for Technological Leadership: The U.S. needs a new innovation strategy to preserve our edge. Despite lots of talk about innovation and high-tech competition, our country still has a largely aimless approach. The trail of failed government ventures, from solar panel manufacturer Solyndra to a hodgepodge of aborted weapons programs, speaks to the risks. Perhaps as a result, public R&D funding recently hit a 60-year low relative to our national wealth. The private sector now leads the way, but businesses must confront what the management guru Clayton Christensen called the “innovator’s dilemma,” the capacity to divest from what makes them successful today in order to invest in what will make them successful in the future.
At the other extreme, Chinese firms will enjoy substantial state support and that non-Chinese firms will compete on uneven ground. Beijing has also taken creative steps, such as creating venture funds where the state accepts most of the risk in order to incentivize private investment in artificial intelligence. If Beijing wants capital to flow to a technology, it will.
Lead the Digital Age: The third and final pillar of the renewal agenda is data. Data storage, access, and learning would catalyze human progress. Data confers power – economic, national security, and governmental. For that reason, China has created a techno-totalitarian regime designed to control data, strip individuals of their privacy, and the dominate the digital era. Europe has offered an alternative version, built, as usual for the EU, around heavy-handed regulations. The United States has been out of the game without a clear data strategy. That must change.
America’s data strategy must have two lines of attack, one domestic and one global. At home, the imperative is to address the abuses of data by foreign adversaries and by Big Tech. To do so, we’ll need to pass national privacy laws, step up protections against Chinese intrusions, and reduce Big Tech’s monopoly over information and speech. We must put forward an American vision for the digital age that encourages the open sharing of data, protects the privacy of our citizens, and ensures America continues to set the rules of the road long into the future.
A Rebirth of Leadership: We need leadership in government to take on the greatest external threat to renewal, China, and to drive the policies of renewal. We need leadership to reverse the chief obstacle of renewal, the decay of our institutions, and to reorient them toward their proper missions. And we need leadership across society to set the vision for renewal and guide our country forward. We need bold, visionary leadership in Washington to take on the CCP and push forward an agenda of national renewal.
The only hope for a great American renewal is a rebirth of visionary, virtuous, and transformative leadership across our society. Visionary because our leaders must, like Reagan, set the course to renewal. Virtuous because they must guide the nation down that path with courage, humility, and selflessness. And transformational because the challenges before us demand more than incrementalism. Our leaders must boldly move our country forward into uncharted waters while preserving the principles that make America exceptional.
TECHNOLOGY: A PLAN FOR SUPREMACY: America’s technology leadership is vital to our economic and national security, but we are not doing enough to preserve it. Three forces converged to bring us to this point.
The first is the rise of China. The central thrust of the CCP plan entails massive state investment, Government-guided funds dominate private capital markets. The state, including local municipalities, is the largest single provide of private equity and venture capital funding in China, providing a third of the capital raised in 2021. China has a plan for technology supremacy. What’s ours?
The second is the fundamental reordering of the national innovation pipeline. During the Cold War, the U.S. government funded basic and applied research projects and developed capabilities that served national priorities, including new weapons systems and space technologies. It mostly stayed out of commercial development, leaving it to the private sector entities to turn government-backed scientific and technological advances into new companies, jobs, and industries, thus contributing to America’s unmatched prosperity. Finally, and the reason for this reform is critical: America’s future depends on technological leadership.
We are caught between two extremes. At one end is the largely hands-off approach of recent decades, wherein Washington funded R&D projects but didn’t take an active interest in our technology leadership. At the other end is the CCP’s approach. Between these poles lies a better, third way: a national innovation strategy that unlocks America’s innate entrepreneurship and harnesses market forces in the name of U.S. leadership in the most strategically vital industries of our time. There’s momentum in this direction in Washington. Lawmakers who fail to agree on anything have crossed party lines to propose plans to advance scientific and technological development. But we should also recognize the risks: the promise of renewal could just as easily become a stalking horse for partisan agendas – like climate change. These efforts will not spur innovation or rejuvenate the American economy. They won’t make America stronger or help us win the technological race. For that, America needs to harness its fundamental strengths: its people, dynamic capital markets, and entrepreneurial ecosystem.
To approach innovation at the national level. To begin with, we need a significant increase in R&D funding. Federal R&D spending should grow to no less than $320 billion, roughly double the current level and equal to 1.5% of GDP – and that figure must grow steadily with time. If you believe, as I do, that technological leadership is necessary for sustained economic dynamism, job and wage growth, and national security, then it moves to the top of the list.
DATA: A NEW SOURCE OF POWER: The current crop of Big Tech technology leaders thrives in no small part because they transform vast amounts of data from billions of individuals and organizations into new economic value for their customers.
Data is crucial to national security, too. It drives productivity and thus the economic power that underwrites the U.S.’s military edge. Put simply, data offers incredible advantages to all who hold it, but it is also readily abused. Countries and companies that seek anti-competitive advantages try to control it. So do those that wish to undermine liberty and privacy.
If the U.S. does not shape new rules for the digital age at home and abroad, others will. Shaping the rules of digital power is a key component of geopolitical competition. While data is critical to innovation, privacy must also be protected. Big Tech has accumulated a disturbing power and autonomy over our personal data. It wields that data for profit and with little regard for consequences – social, economic, or national security. The tech titans jealously guard their hold over our data, at the cost of competition and privacy. They encourage us to turn over ever greater portions of ourselves, at the cost of our culture and souls.
There is a balance to be struck. The data strategy, in other words, must do two things. In recognition of the power and ubiquity of data, and of China’s dangerous ambitions, data must remain a free and open resource, shared across companies and countries. And in recognition of Big Tech and social media’s hulking presence in or national life, competition, innovation, and privacy must be carefully balanced and protected, which includes confronting the presence of Chinese technology in our lives.
Think about the last time you used Google Maps on a long drive. You pulled up the app on your phone, plugged in the address, and then got live directions and updates along your route. Each step used data. The app used data about your location. You used Google’s global positioning data to map the right path. Your phone continually pulled data from Google’s servers to update your arrival time. You also created data along the way. Google used your progress to update its real-time traffic information. Its algorithms fine-tuned themselves ever so slightly by comparing your trip to what it expected. Data consumed and data created simultaneously. That’s how the global economy works too. It has become a perpetual motion machine of data: it consumes it, processes it, and produces ever more quantities of it.
The data strategy begins at home, by setting new standards of digital trust and privacy. Right now, we fall woefully short on that account. The problems are legion, but chief among them are the lack of national rules on data privacy, the prevalence of Chinese firms in the U.S., and the overwhelming control and abuse of data by certain U.S. technology companies.
Many in Big Tech often demonstrate little regard for American interests. Some, like Microsoft, have been admirably willing partners of the Pentagon. But in Silicon Valley, partnering with the military isn’t quite so popular, as evidenced by Google backing out of its work on a military AI project after some employees protested. Meanwhile, many Silicon Valley firms are happy to expand their businesses in China – and in some cases look the other way from their human rights abuses.
BIG TECH NEEDS FIXING: Even if we pass national privacy laws and deal with China, we still must take steps to protect our society against the corrosive and censorious effects of Big Tech’s power.
First, they should reduce the insidious social and political effects of social media. We can’t let social media platforms continue to steal our sons’ and daughters’ attention, self-esteem, and happiness, and we can’t let them inflict their political agendas on an unsuspecting nation. It is critical that we take full measure of the social and political cost of these companies.
Second, they should not promote the interests of authoritarian states or compromise our national interests. Companies should not be able to fund China’s strategic technologies, military buildup, or genocide. At the same time, companies should embrace working with the Pentagon and designing and developing technologies or industries critical to our national security and the competition with China.
Third, they should enable free speech and expression within their enterprises and across society. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have standards. Good sense and the law dictate that certain virulent or illegal content should be restricted. However, political speech must be protected. Its stifling has repercussions well beyond any one election. It diminishes the health of our republic.
Data Strategy Summary: This data strategy has two key elements. First, America must set clear domestic rules for the management and use of data, address China’s abuses of our open market, and confront the corrosive power of the keeper of most data, Big Tech. Second, we should take leadership over the digital age and build a trusted network, and international framework, that encourages free flows of data, protects privacy, and counters China’s techno-authoritarian vision. We cannot concede to a world where Communist leaders in Beijing dictate the rules of the road for anyone trying to do business. By moving forward aggressively in the race for data supremacy, we can guard against that ever happening.
Source: Superpower in Peril: A Battle Plan to Renew America by David H. McCormick (2023).
GOVERNMENT ACTION ON AI: Executive Order 13859: President Donald J Trump, on February 11, 2019, launched the “American Artificial Intelligence Initiative,” the United States’ national strategy for maintaining American leadership in AI, by signing Executive Order 13859. The initiative emphasizes the following key policies and practices: Invest in AI research and development, unleash AI resources, remove barriers to AI innovation, promote an international environment supportive of American AI innovation, embrace trustworthy AI for government services and missions. The White House proposed U.S. AI Regulatory Principles to remove barriers to AI innovation which are: Ensure Public Engagement, Limit Regulatory Overreach, Promote Trustworthy AI (fairness, transparency, safety, security, and disclosure).
Source: Government: The American AI Initiative: The U.S. Strategy for leadership in artificial intelligence by Lynne Parker, Director of the AI Initiative Office, The White House. (June 11, 2020).
Executive AI Actions: The Biden White House, in the fall of 2022 released the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights that proposes five principles to guide the design, development, and deployment of automated systems, such as AI. The five key expectations include: (a). Safe and Effective Systems: You should be protected from unsafe or ineffective systems. (b). Algorithmic discrimination protections: You should not face discrimination by algorithms and systems should be used and designed in an equitable way. (c). Data Privacy: You should be protected from abusive data practices via built-in protections, and you should have agency over how data about you is used. (d). Notice and explanation: You should know that an automated system is being used and understand how and why it contributes to outcomes that impact you. (e). Human alternatives, consideration, and fallback: You should be able to opt out, where appropriate and have access to a person who can quickly consider and remedy problems you encounter.
The president should immediately issue a new executive order on artificial intelligence centered on implementing the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights. This executive order will develop a plan to maximize the potential public benefits of automated technologies, including advance AI; direct relevant agencies to prepare for the potential for tremendous economic transition that will be catalyzed by the deployment of advance AI especially disruption to employment; and order the national security community to consider ways to prepare and stop potential catastrophic threats stemming from AI.
Source: Center for American Progress by Adam Conner (April 25, 2023).
NOTE: On November 1, 2023, President Biden published Executive Order 14110
PRESIDENTIAL EXECUTIVE ORDER 14110: Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence.
Policy Statements:
- The critical next steps in AI development should be built on the views of workers, labor unions, educators, and employers to support responsible uses of AI.
- Artificial intelligence policies must be consistent with my Administration’s dedication to advancing equity and civil rights. My Administration’s cannot – and will not – tolerate the use of AI to disadvantage those who are already denied equal opportunity and justice.
- To support the goal of strengthening our Nation’s resilience against climate change impacts and building an equitable clear energy economy may have research aimed at tackling a discussion of issues that may hinder the effective use of AI in research and practices needed to ensure that AI is used responsibly for research.
- Across the Federal Government, my Administration will support programs to provide Americans the skills they need for the age of AI and attract the world’s AI talent to our shores so that the companies and technologies of the future are made in America.
- The Federal Government will ensure that the collection, use, and retention of data is lawful, is secure, and mitigates privacy and confidentiality risks.
- Assess how current or formerly operational Federal programs designed to assist workers facing job disruptions could be used to respond to possible future AI-related disruptions.
- Specific steps for employers to take with regard to AI shall cover at a minimum; (a). job-displacement risks and career opportunities related to AI, including effects on job skills and evaluation of applicants and workers, (b). Labor standards and job quality, including issues related to equity, protected-activity, compensation, health, and safety implications of AI in the workplace.
- The Attorney General is to submit a report that addresses the use of AI in the criminal justice system, including any use in sentencing; parole; police surveillance; crime forecasting and predictive policing, including the ingestion of historical crime data into AI systems to predict “hot spots;” prison management tools; and forensic analysis.
- Testing and safeguards against discrimination, misleading, inflammatory, unsafe or deceptive outputs as well as against producing child sexual abuse material and against producing non-consensual intimate imagery of real individuals for generative AI.
- Advance responsible AI innovation by a wide range of healthcare technology developers prioritize grantmaking and other awards to support responsible AI development and use, including (i). collaborating with appropriate private sector actors through HHS programs that may support the advancement of AI-enabled tools that develop personalized immune-response profiles for patients, and (ii). Explore ways to improve healthcare-data quality to support the responsible development of AI tools for clinical care, real-world evidence programs, population health, public health, and related research.
- Issue a public report describing the potential for AI to improve planning, permitting, investment, and operations for electric grid infrastructure and to enable the provision of clean, affordable, reliable, resilient, and secure electric power to all Americans.
- Promote competition and innovation in the semiconductor industry, recognizing that semi-conductors power AI technologies and their availability is critical to AI competition.
- Evaluate the outcomes of pilot transportation-related applications of AI. Evaluate the outcomes in order to assess when the Department of Transportation, or other Federal or State agencies have sufficient information to take regulatory actions.
- The Secretary of Education shall address safe, responsible, and nondiscriminatory uses of AI in education, including the impact AI systems have on vulnerable and underserved communities, and shall be developed in consultation with stakeholders.
- Improve Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Defense (CBRN) weapon defenses plus that of cyber-attacks.
- Strengthening American Leadership Abroad: Lead efforts outside of military and intelligence areas to expand engagements with international allies and partners in relevant bilateral, multilateral, and multi-stakeholders to advance those allies’ and partners understanding of existing and planned AI-related guidance and policies of the United States, as well as to enhance international collaboration.
- Establish a plan for global engagement on promoting and developing AI standards, with lines of effort that may include: (a). AI nomenclature and terminology, (b). best practices regarding data capture, processing, protection, privacy, confidentiality, handling and analysis, and (c). AI risk management.
- White House Artificial Intelligence Council: Its function is to coordinate the activities of agencies across the Federal Government related to the implementation of AI-related policies set forth in this order. The Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy shall serve as the Chair of the Council. The Council shall consist of the following members or their designees plus the Chair. Note: The 28 listed include: 14 cabinet members, 5 directors, 2 Administrators, 5 Assistants to the President, and 2 Chairmen.
POTENTIAL SOLUTION
One would think based on our history in the two Industrial Revolutions in the World followed by seizing control of the Information Age, that we would have supremacy in this Technology War we are currently engaged in. But the exact opposite seems to be occurring. Why? In my view, it is because our leadership doesn’t think it is important – that China is a strong competitor but no big threat and certainly not an enemy, therefore we are not in a technology war, so any substantial effort in this regard is not needed. The realization that China is out to take over our existing role in the world and its plan is to accomplish that ambition is via technology is not registering. As a result, China is considerably ahead of us in this technology regard.
Therefore, the first solution step is a change in leadership to people who recognize we are in a technology war, and we need to win it if we are going to withstand an economic and military takeover by the China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran coalition.
The second step is to get government and our technology private enterprise companies committed to working together to win the technology war. This is a must, but from my research, little is happening in this regard, and it is critical. Until it happens our success is limited.
We as a country have a great deal of wisdom in how to match and exceed the technological efforts of the coalition, primarily the efforts of China. Effective application of artificial intelligence will be paramount. Such effectiveness will be determined by how well the positives of AI will be utilized while minimizing the negatives. Our values in this regard versus the values of the CCP will be the means to victory. But to do so requires very well thought out rules to guide the development by both government and private enterprise.
We failed in that regard with social media. Learning from those mistakes and applying that to the AI initiatives together would seem to be a good starting point to forge the needed partnership. But that likely will not happen until there is mutual recognition that China is a considerable threat to our lifestyle in America. Certainly, by maintaining the two entities at loggerheads, which is today’s situation, is not going to move us ahead.
Once, the U.S. government and U.S. technology companies start working together against an objective of winning the technology war with China with a set of developmental rules to gain the positives from AI while minimizing the negatives we stand a good chance of winning.
The next step would be to focus on the national innovation pipeline. The government should begin by funding and developing basic and applied research projects that service national priorities including new weapon systems, space technologies, and communication/information systems to facilitate effective real time interaction among all military branches in time of war. Funding from the government to do so, should be in the neighborhood of 1.5% of GDP.
Further, prolific amounts of data should be collected without its abuse by U.S. technology companies and with respect to date privacy in its application.
There is a lot of work to be done to leverage technology in order to win the overall war with China and its allies, thereby reversing our decline and maintaining our superpower status for the good of the world.
The unabbreviated version of the above can be found in the pdf document below.
| america_18l_technology_war_--_segment_18.pdf |