“The major challenge for the US is China,” CNA analyst Larry Lewis said. “They are approaching the use of AI just like the US approached going to the moon in the sixties.”

Despite its ethical objections to helping the Pentagon, Google indirectly and inadvertently assists the Chinese military, which has tentacles into the tech giant’s ventures in China, former deputy secretary of defense Robert Work said.

“I just had a general who came to my office,” said Chris Lynch, head of DoD’s internal hoodie-wearing geek squad, the Defense Digital Service. “The problem was the entire mission was being run out of Excel.”

WASHINGTON: China is besting the United States in key military technologies like hypersonic missiles and electronic warfare, Gen. Paul Selva, vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs said today. We can still catch up, he predicted. What about Artificial Intelligence? That’s too close to call, said former deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work, so we’d better get a move on. Both men… Keep reading →

PENTAGON: The United States government sees a fundamentally more threatening world today, one that requires a more nuanced balance of delivery systems than we’ve deployed since the end of the Cold War. That’s really the change that has driven the results of the Trump Administration’s Nuclear Posture Review, officially released today. Careful transparency continues to… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: The US surface fleet may not be adequately trained for high-intensity combat, four experienced former skippers and the former deputy secretary of defense warned a US Naval Institute conference here on Monday. “Navigation and seamanship, these are the fundamental capabilities which every surface warfare officer should have, but I suspect if called to war,… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: Congress should strike a budget deal to fund the federal government  for at least two years, the Secretary of the Navy said today. The armed forces and defense industry need at least 24 months of predictable, stable funding so they can make investments and operate efficiently, Richard Spencer told reporters. Right now, though, the government’s… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: The US can’t afford to modernize its military and increase its size at the same time, said the former deputy secretary of defense , Bob Work. It can’t build up war-ready forces to deter Russia and China while engaging in non-stop operations around the world, the way we have since 1991. If we have… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: When former Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work heard the head of Google’s parent company, Eric Schmidt, say this morning that America needs a national strategy for developing Artificial Intelligence, one image sprang to his mind’s eye. “The image that popped into my mind was of Nikita Khrushchev banging his shoe in the UN and… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: How does Trump’s Defense Secretary feel about one of the Obama Pentagon’s more controversial acts, the outreach to tech start-ups known as DIU(X)? “I don’t embrace it,” Jim Mattis told reporters en route to Silicon Valley yesterday. “I enthusiastically embrace it, and I’m grateful that Secretary Carter (Ash Carter, Obama’s last SecDef) had the… Keep reading →