Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang is warning lawmakers that China is directing the “full power” of its industries toward artificial intelligence. “AI is China’s Apollo project,” Wang said.
“The country that is able to most rapidly and effectively integrate new technology into warfighting wins,” Wang told the House Armed Services Committee this week.
Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang (Drew Angerer/Getty)
“The Chinese Communist Party deeply understands the potential for AI to disrupt warfare and is investing heavily to capitalize on the opportunity,” Wang continued.
The 26-year-old billionaire went on to say that “China is investing the full power of its industrial base for AI,” adding that this year, the hostile communist country is “on track to spend roughly three times the U.S. government on AI.”
“If you consider it as a percentage of their military investment, the [Chinese military] is investing somewhere between one to two percent of their overall budget into artificial intelligence, whereas the DoD is investing somewhere between 0.1 and 0.2 percent of their budget into AI,” Wang testified.
“AI is China’s Apollo Project,” Wang warned.
Wang also claimed that AI will usher in a “new era of warfare” that would be “defined by AI” like how the Cold War was defined by the atomic bomb.
“The country that is able to most rapidly and effectively integrate new technology into warfighting, wins,” Wang said. “If we don’t win on AI, we risk ceding global influence, technological leadership, and democracy to strategic adversaries like China.”
But while China is making moves to become the global leader in AI domination, Wang maintained that the United States is still the “place of choice” for the world’s most talented AI scientists, and said the U.S. has access to data that gives it another important edge.
“When it comes to data, I actually also agree that we have a potential very powerful advantage here, specifically when it pertains to military implementations,” Wang said. “In America, we have the largest fleet of military hardware in the world.”
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