Knowledge Vault 5 /69 - CVPR 2021
Manufacturing an AI Arms Race The History and Present of US Military Entanglement with Tech
Meredith Whittaker
< Resume Image >

Concept Graph & Resume using Claude 3 Opus | Chat GPT4o | Llama 3:

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Arms Race The
History and Present
of US Military
Entanglement with Tech] --> B[Long military-tech industry history 1] A --> C[SAGE: radar-based networked computing system 2] C --> D[SAGE failed, founded modern computation 3] A --> E[Star Wars echoed SAGEs narrative 4] E --> F[Dissent emerged against Star Wars 5] F --> G[Dissenters silenced, criticism discouraged 6] A --> H[AI largely military-funded for decades 7] H --> I[Recent AI boom: big tech power 8] I --> J[Military seeks big tech AI capabilities 9] J --> K[Googles Project Maven drone contract 10] K --> L[Workers organized against Maven 11] L --> M[Protests ended Googles Maven involvement 12] I --> N[Tech turns to military contracts 13] A --> O[AI arms race protects big tech 14] A --> P[Computation positioned as empires solution 15] A --> Q[Computation: military to commercial to military 16] A --> R[Tech industry shapes AI understanding 17] A --> S[Dissent historically challenged military hype 18] A --> T[Corporate, military interests obscure reality 19] A --> U[Big tech-military union threatens regulation efforts 20] class B,Q,T history class C,D sage class E,O narrative class F,G,S dissent class H,I,P ai class J,K,L,M maven class N,R,U industry

Resume:

1.- U.S. military entanglement with tech industry has a long history, dating back to the Cold War era.

2.- SAGE program in the 1950s aimed to develop a radar-based early warning system using networked computing.

3.- SAGE promised automated omniscience but failed to deliver; it laid the foundation for modern computation.

4.- Star Wars program in the 1980s echoed SAGE's narrative of computational objectivity against Soviet nuclear threat.

5.- Significant dissent emerged against Star Wars from science and tech workers, challenging its feasibility and ethics.

6.- Retaliation and coercion were used to silence Star Wars dissenters and discourage criticism.

7.- AI is not new; its development has been largely underwritten by the U.S. military for decades.

8.- Recent AI boom is tied to the concentrated power and resources of big tech companies.

9.- U.S. military seeks access to big tech's AI capabilities through initiatives like DIU-X and Project Maven.

10.- Google won a DoD contract for Project Maven to develop machine vision for drone surveillance and targeting.

11.- Google workers and allies organized against Maven, citing ethical concerns and AI's limitations.

12.- Protests succeeded in getting Google to end its Maven involvement, part of a growing tech accountability movement.

13.- Big tech is increasingly turning to military contracts as it faces mounting public scrutiny and regulation.

14.- "AI arms race" narrative, pitting U.S. against China, is used to justify military AI spending and protect big tech.

15.- Narrative of automated omniscience persists, positioning computation as the solution to problems of violent empire.

16.- Shifting political economy of computation has moved from military origins to commercialization and now back to military entanglement.

17.- Tech industry shapes computer science research more than the military, influencing our understanding of AI's capabilities.

18.- Organized dissent among science and tech workers has historically challenged military-industrial hype effectively.

19.- Corporate interests and military fantasies are often presented as scientific fact, obscuring reality.

20.- Yoking of big tech and U.S. military poses dangers to efforts to check corporate power and regulate surveillance technologies.

Knowledge Vault built byDavid Vivancos 2024