Does China plan to use AI to decide to launch nukes?
Advanced Computing, AI/ML, Chips, and Extended Reality
Good morning,
Russia has launched an all out aerial assault on Ukraine with more than 120 cruise and ballistic missiles and 90 drones. This attack focused on the Ukrainian energy grid under the pretenses that Russia was trying to disable the Ukrainian military industrial complex. Of course, Russia has established a precedent of attacking the energy grid during the winter to inflict suffering on the Ukrainian people.
Under the recently signed mutual defense treaty with Russia, North Korea may send up to 100,000 soldiers to assist in fighting in Ukraine. It seems unlikely that they will all deploy simultaneously, but rather will execute some sort of time-phased force deployment schedule. Now, this could be a double-edge sword for Kim Jung Un. On the one hand, if his soldiers survive the meat grinder, they could return with important combat experience. On the other hand, they may return and be so internet- and porn-deprived that they revolt and overthrow the Supreme Leader.
Speaking of North Korea, in response to the deployment of North Korean troops, the White House has (finally) told Ukraine that it may use U.S.-made ATACMS missiles for strikes into Russia. Those missiles have an ~300km range, meaning that they could reach out and strike as far as Voronezh, the home of Russia’s Air Force Academy and the 20th Guards Combined Arms Army. That ~300km range also includes a fair number of industrial targets such as one of Russia’s largest aerospace manufacturing plants and more.
While we’re on the topic of policy from the White House (and bringing us back to the topics of today’s newsletter), President Biden met with Chinese leader Xi in their last engagement prior to the inauguration of President-Elect Trump. Biden and Xi agreed that humans and not AI should make decisions about the use of nuclear weapons. Now whether or not China actually believes that is questionable. In testimony before Congress earlier this year, Jacob Stokes of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) highlighted how China envisions the employment of AI for command and control, including decision making, over time. It could very well be that Xi is bidding his time, telling Biden that he agrees to human-in-the-loop control of nukes, while he builds his capacity to remove the human from it.
Alright, enough yapping! Let’s dig in to the news around Quantum Tech, AI, and Nanotech!
News Headlines:
Russia launches one of its fiercest missile and drone attacks at Ukraine’s infrastructure (AP)
Pentagon fails 7th audit in a row but says progress made (TH)
China turns on hypergravity machine almost twice as powerful as U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ machine to compress space-time (SCMP)
N. Korea may send as many as 100,000 for Putin’s war in Russia (BBG)
White House greenlights Ukraine ATACMS missile strikes into Russia (NYT)
Quantum Computing:
India's defense chief: Quantum tech will fundamentally change warfare (QI)
New 'gold-plated' superconductor could be the foundation for massively scaled-up QC in the future (LS)
S. Korean researchers develop groundbreaking 8-photon qubit chip that could accelerate QC development (STD)
Atlantic Quantum and MIT secure $1.8M SBIR to advance superconducting quantum computing for the Air Force (QI)
Germany gives planqc €20M to build 1,000 qubit QC at Leibniz Supercomputing Center (HPC)
AI / ML
Biden, Xi agree that humans—not AI—should make decisions on nukes (NPR)
Instead of killing jobs, there's an AI hiring boom happening: Marc Andreessen (BI)
New secret math benchmark stumps AI models and PhDs alike (AT)
A powerful AI breakthrough is apparently about to change the world (WSJ)
OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic are finding it much harder to improve their models (BBG)
OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman returned to the firm (RT)
Nanotech, Nanomaterials, Chips
AMD will cut 4% of jobs to focus on AI chips (TC)
Pentagon invests another $160M from CHIPS Act to boost semiconductor manufacturing (BD)
XR / AR / VR
Amazon plans to deploy AR smart glasses to aid delivery drivers (XRT)
Deal Flow:
VC
Recogni raised a $102M Series C co-led by Celesta Capital and GreatPoint Ventures to build infrastructure for generative AI data centers (PRN)
PE / M&A
AI coding startup Supermaven has been acquired for an undisclosed amount by fellow AI coding developer Anysphere to beef up Cursor (TC)
Alpaca ML, which develops generative AI tools for image creation, has been acquired by AI video startup Captions (AX)
Opportunities:
The Department of Energy is offering up cloud-based access to its Oak Ridge quantum computers for research purposes (DOE)
Editor's Picks:
The Brookings Institute explores how AI policy under the incoming administration may look.
Lighter Side:
Keep Building,
BOF