This week, we're reading about the PRC's expanded cyberattack targets as well as Chinese efforts to establish dominance in developing countries' AI infrastructure, the latest speculation from Silicon Valley regarding a correlation between AI and existential doom, and an assessment of federal agency accounting of AI use cases.
Opinion | Behind China’s Plans to Build AI for the World | Politico
Arguing why the U.S. need to engage the Global South as a partner on AI development/deployment, this article (and accompanying Politico Tech podcast) from Center for a New American Security explore how China is several steps ahead of the U.S., integrating Chinese designed AI systems into its BRI efforts and creating the underlying infrastructure that will keep the Global South in the Chinese sphere of technological influence. “China," the authors note, "is pursuing a proliferation-first approach to international AI norm-setting, focusing on aggressively building Chinese AI tech into developing economies ahead of pushing specific regulations internationally."
China’s Hackers Are Expanding Their Strategic Objectives | Lawfare
This article from Lawfare offers an excellent summary of the evolution of Chinese cyber capabilities and ambitions. Chinese hackers – in addition to longstanding economic espionage – have more recently expanded their targets to included critical infrastructure, with the suspected intent of "preposition[ing themselves] for future disruptive or destructive operations."
Silicon Valley Confronts a Grim New A.I. Metric | The New York Times
The latest fodder for Silicon Valley cocktail hours: P(doom) — the “probability of doom” that AI will lead to human extinction. The metric, alongside the optimist's version p(hope), even got a mention by Senator Schumer in last week's AI Insight Forum. Even if p(doom) isn't meant to be exact, but rather a rough assessment as to where "someone stands on the utopia-to-dystopia spectrum," the numbers cited here seem alarmingly high given the existential stakes.
Between the Algorithm and a Hard Place: The Worker’s Dilemma | Tech Policy Press
A thoughtful piece from Tech Policy Press on design choices and questions that should be at the center for integrating AI into the workplace. "[O]ur best work environments provide some rules for structure and quality control alongside flexibility for workers to innovate and adapt to changing conditions ... it requires leadership to make design choices that reward BOTH rule following and adaptation, instead of strictly prioritizing process at the expense of poorer outcomes."
GAO issued a report this week on trends in reported federal agency AI use cases, with NASA and the Department of Commerce leading the pack by volume. The reports urges more consistency in federal reporting on AI uses to ensure full compliance with existing Executive Orders, policy and other guidance.