America cannot afford to miss taking the lead role in developing artificial intelligence tools that will shape the future of war worldwide, AI experts told lawmakers Tuesday.
The House Armed Services Committee’s tech panel is probing how AI will alter battlefields with an eye on the emerging tech’s destructive power, ability to keep soldiers farther away from combat zones, and concerns that machines may take control over humanity.
Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang told the panel he worries about China’s army investing in AI for autonomous drone swarms in the sky, on land and below the earth’s surface.
Mr. Wang, whose company touts its AI products with the U.S. Army and Defense Department, said he also has concerns that China’s People’s Liberation Army is investing in adaptive radar systems that jam sensors and blind information networks.
“We’re now embarking on a new era of the world, one in which a new technology, artificial intelligence, is likely to set the stage for the future of ideologies, the balance of global power and the future of the relative peace of our world,” Mr. Wang said at the hearing.
Mr. Wang compared the advent of artificial intelligence tools to the impact of nuclear bomb technology in determining who runs the world.
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The American Enterprise Institute’s Klon Kitchen said the instantaneous proliferation of AI tools will make America’s enemies more effective and efficient, with military logistics likely to be reshaped by AI in the near term.
Mr. Kitchen, who formerly worked in the intelligence community and on Capitol Hill, warned lawmakers to view AI risks as problems that must be managed.
Congress is studying the application of AI across all sectors of society, with the intention of writing new AI rules.
Businessmen working on making commercial AI tools fear a doomsday scenario from the technology’s usage.
OpenAI is building a team to stop artificial intelligence from going off the rails and ending humanity. The makers of the popular chatbot ChatGPT said this month that it did not have a plan to stop a potentially superintelligent AI, so it was gathering a team of engineers and researchers to tackle the existential challenge.
Elon Musk unveiled his own AI startup last week, xAI, and urged lawmakers to worry about an AI nightmare scenario.
SEE ALSO: ‘I’m kind of pro-China’: Elon Musk sees role for China in writing AI rules
“It’s actually important for us to worry about a Terminator future in order to avoid a Terminator future,” Mr. Musk said during a Twitter Spaces conversation last week with Reps. Mike Gallagher, Wisconsin Republican, and Ro Khanna, California Democrat.
Mr. Musk told the bipartisan leaders of the House Armed Services’ tech panel that he has an optimistic outlook on China and believes its government is willing to cooperate in making global guidelines for AI.
He replied that he was skeptical of China being a trusted partner in creating international rules for AI and cited China’s actions surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.
At Tuesday’s hearing, Mr. Gallagher said AI is a critical factor in determining whether the U.S. or China prevails in global competition.
“The [Chinese Communist Party], if they win this competition, or win the sort of AI component of this competition, will likely use that technology for evil as a way of perfecting a repressive, totalitarian surveillance state as well as exporting that model around the world,” Mr. Gallagher said at the hearing. “Whereas we in the West, we in the free world at least have the chance of using it for good.”
• Ryan Lovelace can be reached at rlovelace@washingtontimes.com.
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