In a recently released report, an independent federal commission on artificial intelligence -- National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence mentioned that the US should build a formal tech alliance with India. This move has been called to help develop a comprehensive Indo-Pacific strategy that will be focused on emerging technologies. This newly-created US body in its report has clearly stated that the Department of State and the Department of Defence should negotiate formal cooperation agreements with countries like India, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and Vietnam, with regards to artificial intelligence. The same report has been submitted to the Congress and President Donald Trump, where it has been underlined that the US must build on the strength of its allies and partners to win the global technology competition and preserve free and open societies. According to the Commission, it is required to grow support for the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, which is a strategic forum among the US, Australia, India, and Japan, which will help in creating a formal relationship with nations in the Indo-Pacific region to concentrate on AI cooperation for defence and security purposes. The Commission further recommended that to achieve this goal, it is required to create a comprehensive strategic framework to marshal international multilateral and bilateral cooperation.

Think of artificial intelligence, and the mind often goes to industrial robots and benign surveillance systems. Increasingly, though, these are steppingstones for Big Brother to enhance capabilities in domestic security and international military warfare. China has co-opted a controversial big data policing program into law enforcement, both for racial profiling of its Uighur minority population and for broader citizen surveillance through facial recognition. Wuhan has an entirely AI-staffed police station. But experts say China's artificial intelligence research is also being adapted for unconventional military warfare in the country's bid to dominate the field over the next decade.

According to foreign-policy experts and the defense establishment, the United States is caught in an artificial intelligence arms race with China--one with serious implications for national security. The conventional version of this story suggests that the United States is at a disadvantage because of self-imposed restraints on the collection of data and the privacy of its citizens, while China, an unrestrained surveillance state, is at an advantage. In this vision, the data that China collects will be fed into its systems, leading to more powerful AI with capabilities we can only imagine today. Since Western countries can't or won't reap such a comprehensive harvest of data from their citizens, China will win the AI arms race and dominate the next century. This idea makes for a compelling narrative, especially for those trying to justify surveillance--whether government- or corporate-run.

Governments and companies worldwide are investing heavily in artificial intelligence in hopes of new profits, smarter gadgets, and better health care. Financier and philanthropist George Soros told the World Economic Forum in Davos Thursday that the technology may also undermine free societies and create a new era of authoritarianism. "I want to call attention to the mortal danger facing open societies from the instruments of control that machine learning and artificial intelligence can put in the hands of repressive regimes," Soros said. He made an example of China, repeatedly calling out the country's president, Xi Jinping. China's government issued a broad AI strategy in 2017, asserting that it would surpass US prowess in the technology by 2030. As in the US, much of the leading work on AI in China takes place inside a handful of large tech companies, such as search engine Baidu and retailer and payments company Alibaba. Soros argued that AI-centric tech companies like those can become enablers of authoritarianism. He pointed to China's developing "social credit" system, aimed at tracking citizens' reputations by logging financial activity, online interactions, and even energy use, among other things. The system is still taking shape, but depends on data and cooperation from companies like payments firm Ant Financial, a spinout of Alibaba.

George Soros, billionaire and founder of Soros Fund Management LLC, speaks at an event on day three of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday, Jan. 24, 2019. George Soros, the billionaire philanthropist, issued a warning on Thursday that advancements in the field of artificial intelligence pose a "mortal threat" to humanity when they're made by repressive regimes, The Financial Times reports. The 88-year-old, who made his money in the hedge fund industry, reportedly made his comments during a "provocative" speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos. While China is not the only authoritarian state in the world, it is the most powerful and technologically advanced, Soros said. "This makes [Chinese president] Xi Jinping the most dangerous opponent of open societies," he said.

NEW YORK - Billionaire George Soros warned of the dangers of artificial intelligence in the hands of authoritarian regimes such as China and called President Xi Jinping "the most dangerous" opponent of open societies. "The instruments of control developed by artificial intelligence give an inherent advantage of totalitarian regimes over open societies," the former hedge fund manager said on Thursday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Soros said China is developing a centralized database that will use algorithms to determine whether a person poses a threat to the one party system. Soros, 88, has become an lightning rod for his political views and philanthropic efforts. A longtime supporter and financial backer of progressive causes and Democratic politicians, he's become a target of right wing activists.

Governments and companies worldwide are investing heavily in artificial intelligence in hopes of new profits, smarter gadgets, and better health care. Financier and philanthropist George Soros told the World Economic Forum in Davos Thursday that the technology may also undermine free societies and create a new era of authoritarianism. "I want to call attention to the mortal danger facing open societies from the instruments of control that machine learning and artificial intelligence can put in the hands of repressive regimes," Soros said. He made an example of China, repeatedly calling out the country's president, Xi Jinping. China's government issued a broad AI strategy in 2017, asserting that it would surpass US prowess in the technology by 2030. As in the US, much of the leading work on AI in China takes place inside a handful of large tech companies, such as search engine Baidu, and retailer and payments company Alibaba. Soros argued that AI-centric tech companies like those can become enablers of authoritarianism. He pointed to China's developing "social credit" system, aimed at tracking citizens' reputations by logging financial activity, online interactions and even energy use, among other things. The system is still taking shape, but depends on data and cooperation from companies like payments company Ant Financial, a spinout of Alibaba.

Perhaps you already read about the Technological Singularity, since it is one of the hottest predictions for the future (there is even a university with that name), especially after the past years' development of AI, more precisely, after recent Deep Learning advancements that attracted a lot of attention (and bad journalism too). In his The Singularity is near (2005) book, Ray Kurzweil predicts that humans will transcend the "limitations of our biological bodies and brain", stating also that "future machines will be human, even if they are not biological". In other books, like The Age of Intelligent Machines (1990), he also predicts a new world government, computers passing Turing tests, exponential laws everywhere, and so on (not that hard to have a good recall rate with that amount of predictions right?). As science fiction, these predictions are pretty amazing, and many of them were very close to what happened in our "modern days" (and I also really love the works made by Arthur C. Clarke), however, there are a lot of people that are putting science clothes on what is called "futurism", sometimes also called "future studies" or "futurology", although as you can imagine, the last term is usually avoided due to some obvious reasons (sounds like astrology, and you don't want to be linked to pseudo-science right?). In this post, I would like to talk not about the predictions.