dChan - Q Origins Project Archive

Inside the Ring: Democrats Dominate Artificial Intelligence Commission

A new federal commission on artificial intelligence is being led by Democrats.

The National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence (AI), a federally appointed commission, held its first meeting Monday chaired by former Google executive and billionaire Eric Schmidt, a major donor and informal adviser to former President Barack Obama. The commission’s vice chairman is Robert Work, who was deputy defense secretary in the Obama administration.

Additionally, the AI commission has hired as a staff member Ylli Bajraktari, a former National Security Council staff member under Mr. Obama. Mr. Bajraktari also was a former aide to Obama Defense Secretary Ash Carter. He and his brother, Ylber Bajraktari, raised concerns about political reliability from some conservatives who questioned why they were kept on in senior positions at the NSC by President Trump’s second national security adviser, retired Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster. A Pentagon spokeswoman had no immediate comment.

Mr. Trump’s new defense budget is seeking $927 million for the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center and an advanced image recognition capability. The Pentagon said in a statement that the commission was set up under last year’s defense authorization act. Its mission is to review and advise the federal government on artificial intelligence, machine learning and other associated technologies and issues related to national security, defense, public-private partnerships and investments. “I’m honored to lead this talented group of commissioners as we take on this important effort,” said Mr. Schmidt. “We have a tremendous opportunity to help our government understand the state of artificial intelligence and offer ideas on how to harness this transformative technology to benefit both our economic and national security interests.” The 15 members of the commission were briefed during the Monday meeting on AI efforts by the Pentagon, the Commerce Department, the intelligence community and members of Congress. The statement said commissioners were appointed by the secretaries of defense and commerce and Republicans and Democrats in Congress. Mr. Schmidt is listed as a technical adviser to Alphabet, Google’s parent company.

Google came under fire from Vice President Mike Pence in October for the company’s work with China in developing a censored search engine for the Chinese government that would allow blocking search terms such as “Tiananmen” — the Beijing square where hundreds of pro-democracy protesters were massacred by Chinese troops in 1989. Google executives later said the search engine, called Dragonfly, is a research project and would not be sold to the Chinese. However, insiders from Google recently reported that work on the Chinese censorship software was continuing.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/mar/13/democrats-dominate-artificial-intelligence-commiss/