The US blocked high power graphics cards to specific countries, and then got all shaken up when their money moat was pole-vaulted by an embargo’d country wielding jank cards.
Why is this a big deal, exactly?
Who benefits if the US has the best AI, and who benefits if it’s China?
Is this like the Space Race, where it’s just an effort to spit on each other, but ultimately no one really loses, and cool shit gets made?
What does AI “supremacy” mean?
I think you hit the nail on the head with the military aspect: combat drones and robotics
It also opens up a big question, is US military tech and the US army as much better as they claim because of their funding, or is it overvalued by orders of magnitude as their AI tech seems to be?
Absolutely overvalued. Companies overcharging on military contracts by orders of magnitude is the standard. Hell, the air force was buying mugs for over $1k/mug not too long ago, I’m not sure if they ever actually did anything about it but I remember it being reported on a couple of years ago.
The US is scary because of its nuclear arsenal. Most of the $850B budget goes to the contractors solely for R&D, sustained production is rare, and even the “sustained” results in at most 200 units.
AI has been proven to show bias because the data its trained on shows bias but the us doesn’t care as long as that bias is pointed at the “enemy” (read: anyone south of Texas or east of Ukraine) so that enemy can be most effectively eliminated. We’re not leading in any development, production, or ethics, we’re just paying rich assholes to make indiscriminate killing machines unbound by morals and easily scapegoated when things go wrong.
I see people actually in the military constantly complaining about how far behind technologically the military is. Only the special forces/CIA/seals/etc get the really cool toys