Chinese military may have an edge over US on artificial intelligence research, report warns
- Report by Georgetown University says PLA spending may be higher than America’s and adds that many of its suppliers could gain access to US technology
- The Chinese military hopes to become a leader in the hi-tech sphere and recent reports that it tested a hypersonic weapon caused concern in the US
The analysis, by the Centre for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET) at Georgetown University in Washington, also found just 22 of the 273 companies known to supply the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) with AI equipment were not subject to US Commerce Department restrictions – meaning they may be able to access US technology and pass it on to the PLA.
Given the secrecy surrounding the issue, it is difficult to calculate exactly how much each side spends on AI, but the researchers looked at more than 18,300 publicly available contracts awarded by the PLA and state-owned defence companies last year, and estimated that Chinese military spending on AI-related technologies amounted to between US$1.6 billion and $2.7 billion each year.
They also cited previous studies that calculated that the Pentagon spent between $800 million and $1.3 billion on AI last year, along with anywhere between $1.7 billion to $3.5 billion being spent on unmanned and autonomous systems.
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“Specifically, we find the PLA is buying AI systems designed to identify undersea vehicles, wargame Taiwan operations, track US navy ships, and deploy electronic countermeasures, among other tasks,” said Ryan Fedasiuk, a research analyst at CSET, wrote on Twitter on Thursday.
