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China dominating over US technologically, warns former Pentagon software chief

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Americans have “good reason to be angry,” said departing Pentagon tech expert.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

China is dominating the U.S. by leaps and bounds in the field of artificial intelligence, and the American military’s foot dragging on evolving its technology with the times is endangering the future of the country, warned departing Pentagon software chief Nicolas Chaillan.

“We have no competing fighting chance against China in 15 to 20 years. Right now, it’s already a done deal; it is already over in my opinion,” Chaillan told the Financial Times. “Whether it takes a war or not is kind of anecdotal.”

Calling U.S. government and military cyber defenses akin to “kindergarten level,” he added that Americans have “good reason to be angry”.

In September, Chaillan resigned from his post via an explosive letter which slammed the military establishment for not taking the threat of Chinese technological development seriously and not prioritizing an advanced technology strategy for the military.

“[W]e are setting up critical infrastructure to fail,” he wrote. “We would not put a pilot in the cockpit without extensive flight training; why would we expect someone with no IT experience to be close to successful? While we wasted time in bureaucracy, our adversaries moved further ahead.”

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Part of the reason the U.S. is lagging behind on advancement lies on tech companies that are reluctant to work with the government, Chaillan told the Times.

He specifically placed blame on Google, as the industry titan cites “ethical concerns” around developing technology for the government

Meanwhile, Chaillan pointed out, Chinese tech firms are obligated to work with their government, with no concern for ethical issues and backed by “massive investment” from the state.

Rather than using Chaillan to innovate and refresh a stagnant technological infrastructure within the military, the U.S. government had him “fixing basic cloud things and laptops.”

A military spokesman said Frank Kendall, secretary of the U.S. Air Force, had spoken with Chaillan about the issues raised in his letter and thanked him for his service.

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