A congressional probe has unearthed evidence that China is using artificial intelligence to steal American tech and people’s data.
The alarm sounded Thursday by the House Judiciary Committee followed a major warning this week from several countries that Silicon Valley tech leaders should be on alert for China’s tech theft.
Cyberespionage and theft committed by China is not a new concern for U.S. officials, but Rep. Darrell Issa urged people to prepare for a world where powerful supercomputers anticipate adversaries’ every move.
“One of the key activities that we see the Chinese government doing is, in fact, predictive use of AI to both steal real intellectual property and also to box-off and in fact deny real inventors their intellectual property,” Mr. Issa, California Republican, said.
The investigation by the Judiciary Committee’s intellectual property panel solicited input from former American intelligence officials, including former CIA officer William C. Hannas.
Mr. Hannas, now an analyst at Georgetown University, told the subcommittee on Thursday that he built a program for the spy agency to track China’s tech transfers.
He said the communist power’s tech transfer programs trace their roots to 1956 and are growing more dangerous amid the advent of AI.
“China will soon — if it has not already — used AI for cyber exploits to further its transfer agenda, an unholy marriage in which advances in the one promote progress in the other, multiplying existing threats to U.S. and allied security,” Mr. Hannas said in written testimony.
America and its allies are worried. FBI Director Christopher A. Wray hosted intelligence directors from Australia, Britain, Canada and New Zealand in California this week to discuss the threat of Chinese theft of tech innovation. The gathering was the intelligence chiefs’ first public event together.
Mr. Wray said the Chinese Communist Party plans to use stolen AI to bolster its hacking efforts.
“We have found that, more often than not, the answer to the question, ‘Is this a technology they’re targeting?’ is ‘Yes,’” Mr. Wray said.
Chinese theft of technology is a growing and bipartisan concern.
Rep. Hank Johnson, Georgia Democrat, said AI is increasing China’s ability to conduct sophisticated intrusions that penetrate federal departments, military bases, and businesses nationwide.
“So far, China has tested swarms of AI-powered drones, used AI-generated propaganda to target U.S. politics and stolen AI technology from U.S. companies,” Mr. Johnson said.
China’s alleged targets are not limited to America’s high-skilled tech sector but extend into the pockets of people nationwide.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler, New York Democrat, said Bejing is doggedly working to steal Americans’ data to power its AI tools.
“Chinese-affiliated actors are buying data from commercial data brokers,” Mr. Nadler said. “They are also collecting data on U.S. persons through Chinese-owned software applications such as TikTok and medical diagnostic platforms like the DNA sequencing company AGI.”
He said China’s strong-arm tactics to hoover up Americans’ data have blurred the boundaries of the public and private collection of information.
As AI improves China’s capabilities, American policymakers are looking for solutions to stop the tech drain.
Mr. Hannas recommended the federal government establish a National Science and Technology Analysis Center outside the intelligence community to forecast, analyze, diminish and interdict foreign threats to U.S. science and technology.
“The United States Intelligence Community, USIC, of which I was a part — and to that extent responsible — should also be held accountable for its failure to seriously pursue so-called science and technology, S&T, intelligence, that is, identifying and monitoring foreign S&T threats,” he said.
• Ryan Lovelace can be reached at rlovelace@washingtontimes.com.
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