 Report: U.S. military must speed up AI development to maintain edge Washington DC (UPI) Apr 9, 2021 - The National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence vice chair said on Friday the United States lacks a strategy to compete with China in military AI. "The first thing is we have got to do is to take this competition seriously, and we need to win it," Robert O. Work, commission vice chair, told reporters at the Pentagon. He recommended that the Defense Department should spend at least 3.4 percent of its budget on identified AI priorities through its Joint Artificial Intelligence Center. Work noted that the United States is currently the world leader in AI, but that China has structured its army, private sector and academia to overtake it. "We have a generational opportunity here for AI to be our future," Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Michael S. Groen, JAIC director, added, noting that beyond defense initiatives, AI will be a driver of the U.S. economy. "We must act now. We need to start putting these pieces into place now," Groen said. Work and Groen spoke Friday after the publication of an NCSAI report suggesting that AI is a groundbreaking and long-term technology, and urging that U.S. dominance in the area is crucial. "The United States must act now to field AI systems and invest substantially more resources in AI innovation to protect its security, promote its prosperity, and safeguard the future of democracy," the 10-page report says in part. According to the report, the U.S. government is lagging behind competitors at organizing and investing in AI development, and may not be prepared to defend against "AI-enabled threats and rapidly adopt AI applications for national security purposes." "This will be expensive and require a significant change in mindset. America needs White House leadership, Cabinet-member action, and bipartisan Congressional support to win the AI era," the report said. The report calls AI-enhanced capabilities "the tools of first resort" for defending against missile and cyberattacks, disinformation campaigns and swarming unmanned enemy aircraft, all of which could occur at speeds that "human operators will not be able to keep up." Its recommendations include military AI readiness by 2025, a digitally literate U.S. workforce and a White House-led strategy for technical competition. "Our armed forces' competitive military-technical advantage could be lost within the next decade if they do not accelerate the adoption of AI across their missions," the report reads. In March, Groen told an industry conference that the U.S. military must scale up its artificial intelligence use or be left behind by adversaries. He said that data must be standardized, cloud services must be adopted and AI must be integrated into military operations, adding that while current military use of AI "is a step in the right direction, we need to start building on it." Groen noted that China has said it intends "to be dominant in AI by 2030," while the Pentagon has focused on five-year program objective memorandums looking toward 2027.
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The EU unveiled a plan Wednesday to regulate the sprawling field of artificial intelligence, aimed at easing public fears of Big Brother-like abuses by imposing checks on technology deemed "high-risk".
"With these landmark rules, the EU is spearheading the development of new global norms to make sure AI can be trusted," EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager said.
"By setting the standards, we can pave the way to ethical technology worldwide and ensure that the EU remains competitive along the way."
The European Commission, the bloc's executive arm, has been preparing the proposal for more than a year and a debate involving the European Parliament and 27 member states is to go on for months more before a definitive text is in force.
Brussels is looking to set the terms with a first ever legislative package on AI and catch up with the US and China in a sector that spans from voice recognition to insurance and law enforcement.
It insists that by laying out a clear framework for companies across the bloc's 27 member states it will help promote innovation.
The bloc is trying to learn the lessons after largely missing out on the internet revolution and failing to produce any major competitors to match the giants of Silicon Valley or their Chinese counterparts.
But the draft rules have sparked competing complaints from all sides of the debate, with big tech warning bureaucracy could suffocate development and civil liberties groups complaining the proposals have too many "loopholes".
- 'High-risk' -
"Today's proposals aim to strengthen Europe's position as a global hub of excellence in AI from the lab to the market," EU internal market commissioner Thierry Breton said.
The draft regulation lays out a "risk-based approach" that would lead to bans on a limited number of uses that are deemed as presenting an "unacceptable risk" to EU fundamental rights.
This would make "generalised surveillance" of the population off-limits as well as any tech "used to manipulate the behaviour, opinions or decisions" of citizens.
Anything resembling a social rating of individuals based on their behaviour or personality would also be prohibited.
On the rung below, the regulation requires companies to get a special authorisation for applications deemed "high-risk" before they reach the market.
These systems would include "remote biometric identification of persons in public places" -- including facial recognition -- as well as "security elements in critical public infrastructure".
Special exceptions are envisioned for allowing the use of mass facial recognition systems in cases such as searching for a missing child, averting a terror threat, or tracking down someone suspected of a serious crime.
Military applications of artificial intelligence will not be covered by the rules.
Other uses, not classified as "high risk", will have no additional regulatory constraints beyond existing ones.
Infringements, depending on their seriousness, may bring heavy fines for companies.
- 'Loopholes' -
Google and other tech giants are taking the EU's AI strategy very seriously as Europe often sets a standard on how tech is regulated around the world.
Last year, Google warned that the EU's definition of artificial intelligence was too broad and that Brussels must refrain from over-regulating a crucial technology.
Alexandre de Streel, co-director of the Centre on Regulation in Europe think tank, said there is a difficult balance to be struck between protection and innovation.
The text "sets a relatively open framework and everything will depend on how it is interpreted," he told AFP.
Tech lobbyist Christian Borggreen, from the Computer and Communications Industry Association, welcomed the EU's risk-based approach, but warned against stifling industry.
"We hope the proposal will be further clarified and targeted to avoid unnecessary red tape for developers and users," he said in a statement.
Civil liberties activists warned that the rules do not go far enough in curbing potential abuses in the cutting-edge technologies.
"Although the proposal technically bans the most problematic uses of AI, there are still loopholes for Member States to go through to get around the bans," said Orsolya Reich of umbrella group Liberties.
"There are way too many problematic uses of the technology that are allowed, such as the use of algorithms to forecast crime or to have computers assess the emotional state of people at border control."
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