Can’t win them all

The Pentagon’s former software chief resigned and said that China is headed toward global dominance in artificial intelligence due to the relatively slow pace of innovation in the United States.

Strong words: “We have no competing fighting chance against China in 15 to 20 years. Right now, it’s already a done deal; it is already over in my opinion,” the Pentagon’s former software chief, Nick Chaillan, told the Financial Times, adding that some of the U.S.’s cyber defense systems were at “kindergarten level.”

Chaillan announced his resignation last month as an act of protest against the United States’ slow pace of tech development. Chaillan said America’s failure to aggressively pursue AI capacity was putting the nation at risk, according to Reuters.

In the next decade, Western intelligence reports predict China will dominate with many emerging technologies like AI, synthetic biology and genetics, Reuters reported.

Chaillan also attributed the sluggish pace to companies like Google hesitating to work with the government on AI and ongoing debates about AI ethics in the U.S., while China pushes forward without consideration for the potential ethical consequences.