On Tuesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “America Reports,” Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) said that partnerships between American universities and China sometimes have to be done to catch up to China in “areas of technology, where, sadly, China is ahead of us.” But end up “helping the Chinese develop technologies that we don’t even have ourselves, or they’re getting technology from us that they wouldn’t otherwise have,” which “puts the United States in a dangerous situation.”
Moulton discussed his specific concerns with UC Berkeley’s Tsinghua-UC Berkeley Shenzhen Institute and stated that “many of the technologies that are coming out of this partnership have what we call dual-use capabilities. So, they might be ostensibly for civilian use, like developing a civilian AI program, but they can be used for military use, as well. And that’s why we have so much concern.” Moulton also called for stronger guardrails on programs like this.
He added, “I think it’s pretty easy to see how these things start. You have academic partnerships with universities all over the world, because we benefit from those partnerships. There are some areas of technology, where, sadly, China is ahead of us. One place where they have been putting a lot of government investment is into artificial intelligence. We know that AI is really important across societies. So, you can imagine a partnership like this starting, in part because we have some things to learn from the Chinese to help catch up with them. But if the end results are where it gets to today, is that we’re helping the Chinese develop technologies that we don’t even have ourselves, or they’re getting technology from us that they wouldn’t otherwise have, then that puts the United States in a dangerous situation.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.