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For US to keep military edge over China and Russia, data reforms are needed, Senate hears
- Cybersecurity hearing elicits suggestion of allowing Pentagon to analyse data collected by hardware produced by its contractors
- US also urged to allow foreign STEM students and researchers to stay in country given newly developed and mature weapons systems
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Robert Delaneyin Washington
Defence technology experts told US lawmakers on Wednesday that America’s military advantage over China and Russia is undermined by restrictions on its ownership of data collected by its jets, submarines and other hardware. One made recommendations that he said would be “disruptive and emotional”.
Speaking before the Senate Armed Services Committee’s subcommittee on cybersecurity, Shyam Sankar, chief technology officer of data analytics firm Palantir Technologies and one of three witnesses in the hearing, said the Pentagon needed urgent reforms to leverage artificial intelligence safely and effectively.
“We are facing a moment in which existing road maps and systems are insufficient,” Sankar said. “We must completely rethink what we are building and how we are building it.”
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“To succeed, we need to cut through the existing ways we organise and procure weapons systems and begin with software and AI first. This will be disruptive and emotional.”
Reforms suggested by witnesses included using the Defence Production Act to require that US companies report when they are training large AI models, preventing them from open-source models that could be used by adversaries and restricting Pentagon contractors from doing business with third parties that are not properly vetted.
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