Tech
US set to invest $2bn into AI to overtake China
The Pentagon’s research agency DARPA announced today it will be spending $2 billion on AI, the focus of which, according to CNN, will include “creating systems with common sense, contextual awareness and better energy efficiency. Advances could help the government automate security clearances, accredit software systems and make AI systems that explain themselves.”
John Everett, the deputy director of DARPA’s Information Innovation Office, told CNN the agency’s new investment may ultimately get even bigger than that $2 billion. The way he put it — the agency thinks it can accelerate two decades of progress into five years.
Read also: Google CEO refuses invitation by US Congress
In many respects, it’s an investment that comes not a moment too soon. Other nations are likewise making no secret about stepping up their investments into AI, and probably our strongest rival in this area, China, has said it wants to be the global leader in a few years.
During his appearance this week on Joe Rogan’s podcast, noted AI-phobe Elon Musk said he thinks one reason China is poised to potentially take the lead is because of how its politicians generally have a scientific bent. “They’re pretty good at science in China,” he said on the show. “The mayor of Beijing has, I believe, an environmental engineering degree, and the deputy mayor has a physics degree. I met them.”
Reuters‘ reporting in June uncovered that the Trump administration was proposing a tripling of funding in next year’s budget to $83 million for one of those AI-based missile efforts, a funding increase that had not been previously made public.
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