{"id":262000,"date":"2024-05-13T12:00:29","date_gmt":"2024-05-13T11:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=262000"},"modified":"2024-05-08T06:22:08","modified_gmt":"2024-05-08T05:22:08","slug":"killer-ai-is-a-patriotic-duty-silicon-valley-comes-to-washington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2024\/05\/killer-ai-is-a-patriotic-duty-silicon-valley-comes-to-washington\/","title":{"rendered":"Killer AI Is a Patriotic Duty? Silicon Valley Comes to Washington"},"content":{"rendered":"

2 May 2024 – Yesterday\u2019s conference showed the increasing power defense tech startups wield in the Beltway.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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It\u2019s only been six years since thousands of Google employees forced their employer to pull out of an AI contract with the U.S. military. At the time, it seemed like a watershed moment: Despite long historical links to the Pentagon, Silicon Valley appeared poised to shake off its ties with the world\u2019s most powerful military.<\/p>\n

But a lot can change in half a decade, as Palantir CEO Alex Karp gleefully reminded his audience in the U.S. Capitol Wednesday. \u201cI historically would have been one that would rage against Silicon Valley venture [capitalists],\u201d Karp said, joking that he used to have \u201call sorts of fantasies of using drone-enabled technology to exact revenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, patriotic investors and officials are \u201ccoming together around some obvious truths,\u201d he argued. In Karp\u2019s telling, these principles include a realization that Western values must be protected against burgeoning threats from America\u2019s adversaries in China and Russia as well as the dangerous \u201cpagan\u201d forces behind pro-Palestinian protests.<\/p>\n

Karp\u2019s free-wheeling presentation was the most entertaining of Wednesday\u2019s Hill and Valley Forum, a four-hour-long event featuring a who\u2019s-who of the growing defense tech ecosystem. But, rhetorical flourishes aside, the series of talks gave a unique window into the increasingly porous border between Silicon Valley\u2019s most hawkish entrepreneurs and their ideological allies in Washington.<\/p>\n

Above all, the two groups came together around their shared hatred for the Chinese Communist Party and its various nefarious doings. Panelists called for everything from slashing regulation of the weapons industry to fielding fully autonomous weapons, lest our enemies get a chance to do it first.<\/p>\n

\u201cTechnology is moving extremely quickly, and you have your adversaries that are moving super quickly as well,\u201d remarked Alex Wang of Scale AI. \u201cWe\u2019re in a moment where we have to act really quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

The conduit for this growing collaboration is Jacob Helberg, the event\u2019s baby-faced organizer. In recent years, Helberg has shed his more conventional think tank background to become Silicon Valley\u2019s man in Washington. He\u2019s convened<\/u><\/a> countless meetings between policymakers and tech leaders where attendees pitch policies to stick it to China.<\/p>\n

Helberg now works both as an adviser to Palantir and a member of a congressional commission on U.S.-China relations. Some say<\/u><\/a> this dual-hatting amounts to a conflict of interests given that he now \u201cstands to benefit from ever-frostier relations between the two countries,\u201d a claim that Helberg strenuously denies.<\/p>\n

Some of Helberg\u2019s efforts, like the campaign to ban TikTok, have already paid off. But he has his sights set on something bigger, according to the Washington Post, which reported<\/u><\/a> Wednesday that the young hotshot has already started drafting an executive order for a potential future Trump administration that would strip away President Joe Biden\u2019s AI regulations (limited as they may be).<\/p>\n

Helberg\u2019s convening powers were on full display Wednesday: Some of Washington\u2019s most powerful politicians graced the stage, including Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), as well as Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), who holds an important position on the House Appropriations Committee.<\/p>\n

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) \u2014 who, you may remember, is currently fighting for his political life \u2014 took time out of his schedule to warn the crowd about the threat China poses to our very way of life. \u201cWe must make clear that if America and American companies lose, that means China wins,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n

Even Donald Trump made an appearance, if only in the form of a brief, pre-recorded statement filmed on what appeared to be the ex-president\u2019s private jet. \u201cOur country\u2019s going through a lot of problems right now, but we\u2019re going to make it bigger, better, and even stronger than before,\u201d Trump said, noting that he\u2019d had a \u201cvery productive\u201d meeting about AI with Helberg.<\/p>\n

The day\u2019s panels had an odd quality to them, possibly because none of the journalists in attendance were invited to moderate. Instead, the audience was treated to a series of largely unstructured conversations between politicians and the kind of people who can buy an island.<\/p>\n

Graham warned the audience that Chinese cars could be little more than \u201croving spy labs\u201d meant to gather information on American patriots. Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) argued that Americans will have to come around to the idea of AI drones that make \u201clife and death decisions\u201d because our enemies will surely do the same.<\/p>\n

The growing bonds between Silicon Valley and Washington are \u201crecreating a culture that says it is great to be American,\u201d remarked Josh Wolfe, a VC at Lux Capital, adding that \u201cwe do have adversaries with malicious aims\u201d that can only be countered with good old-fashioned American capitalism.<\/p>\n

The funhouse mirror aspects of the event, plentiful as they were, are a distraction from the fundamental problem: A growing part of Silicon Valley is ready to unshackle AI from most if not all oversight, and Congress is more than happy to help them.<\/p>\n

There is perhaps no greater evidence of this fact than the effusive praise Sen. Booker lavished on his fellow panelists, all of whom lead various AI firms. \u201cOften unsung heroes are those that are the innovators and the scientists and those who are creating systems and opportunities that we now in our generation take for granted,\u201d the lawmaker said. \u201cYou three are frontline players in ways that have me humbled and in awe.\u201d<\/p>\n

_______________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Connor Echols is a reporter for <\/em>Responsible Statecraft. He was previously an associate editor at the <\/em>Nonzero Foundation, where he co-wrote a weekly foreign policy newsletter. Echols received his Bachelor\u2019s degree from Northwestern University in Journalism, Middle East and North African Studies.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original – responsiblestatecraft.org<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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