The purpose of this series of posts is to identify who and what is at the centre of the covid phenomenon. The covid story is so ludicrous – the idea that we are in the midst of a global pandemic, let alone one necessitating the lockdown of society – that I’m moving on to the question of why this is happening. Who has the power to shut down whole industries? Who has the will to do it? Who gave the green light? Who’s coordinating this?
The first posts will review the establishment of several organizations that predate the covid phenomenon. In fact, I will argue that they are prologue: Digital Nations, Open Government Partnership, and, especially, the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence (NSCAI).
My argument is that, far from fighting an alleged virus, what is happening is, in fact, destroying people’s health and well-being in the Western world. Consequently, we should consider the possibility that the most powerful forces have mobilized behind it. What are those forces? The American military, intelligence networks, and the private transnational corporations that depend on them for their security and expansion. So, in this first post, I’m going to review the establishment of the NSCAI in the United States and its work prior to the covid phenomenon.
At the end of the Cold War, with the Soviet Union out of the way, it looked like there would be no limits to the American empire. The wars of expansion accelerated. The security state was ruthless in its manipulation of Western populations to support the wars, which they did willingly and enthusiastically. 9/11 showed us that the deep state had no qualms about killing Americans in order to achieve its goals: global expansion and domination.
As we’ll see, we have arrived at the end of that expansion unless the rulers can wipe American and Western society and culture out of the way. They need to clear the decks to be able to defeat China on the new battleground of the empire of Artificial Intelligence. We are being swept into the dustbin of history. Incredibly, most people are jumping in voluntarily. The planners know that people who bought the official 9/11 story will believe anything. It’s making their job much easier than it should be.
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On 13 August 2018, Section 1051 of the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 established the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence “to consider the methods and means necessary to advance the development of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and associated technologies to comprehensively address the national security and defense needs of the United States.” The Department of Defense agreed to assist the Commission in certain administrative matters, such as human resources, office space, and contracting.
Who had control over the Commission? The Department of Defense appointed six members; Intelligence controlled four members; Commerce (science, transportation, energy) had control over five members. (Eric Schmidt, CEO of Alphabet – parent of Google – was named the chair.) In other words, this Commission was established to allow the deep state to work with key industries in order to accomplish its goals. What were those goals? What was the purpose of the Commission?
The Commission was established to write a review to advise the government on the following: the “competitiveness of the United States in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other associated technologies, including matters related to national security, defense, public-private partnerships, and investments;” the “means and methods for the United States to maintain a technological advantage in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other associated technologies related to national security and defense;” “developments and trends in international cooperation and competitiveness, including foreign investments in artificial intelligence, related machine learning, and computer science fields that are materially related to national security and defense;” the “means by which to foster greater emphasis and investments in basic and advanced research to stimulate private, public, academic and combined initiatives in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other associated technologies, to the extent that such efforts have application materially related to national security and defense.” (In other words, how do we use AI technologies to defeat China? Who is the “we” in this sentence? It’s not the people of the United States or the Western world. It is those who control the state in order to consolidate their power). It was charged with reviewing “workforce and education incentives to attract and recruit leading talent in artificial intelligence and machine learning disciplines, including science, technology, engineering, and math programs;” the “risks associated with United States and foreign country advances in military employment of artificial intelligence and machine learning, including international law of armed conflict, international humanitarian law, and escalation dynamics;” “associated ethical considerations related to artificial intelligence and machine learning as it will be used for future applications related to national security and defense;” “means to establish data standards, and incentivize the sharing of open training data within related national security and defense data-driven industries;” “consideration of the evolution of artificial intelligence and appropriate mechanism for managing such technology related to national security and defense;” and “any other matters the Commission deems relevant to the common defense of the Nation.”
How many times do you read “national security and defense” in the justification and purpose of the NSCAI?
In May 2019, the NSCAI presented its first review, entitled Chinese Tech Landscape Overview, which gives the game away. Nowhere in its charter was China even mentioned. However, its review focuses on nothing else. Researchers accessed the review through a FOI request. The Commission concluded that China had leapfrogged ahead of the USA in artifical intelligence. While America maintained an advantage in research and creation, China was ahead in the application of artificial intelligence. The only way that Washington could maintain its global dominance was to level the playing field with China. That meant eliminating the constraints on imposing artificial intelligence across the entire society. We will have to understand what constraints the NSCAI concluded needed to be eliminated. Not only in the USA, but globally. (Spoiler: you are the constraint.)
New technologies have a lifecycle. First are the breakthroughs in core technology (deep learning, facial recognition, TPUs, 7 nm semiconductors, self-driving vehicles) and the invention of new paradigms for user interaction (digital payments, ridesharing, public cloud, face ID). Second comes the adoption of the technologies: getting them into the hands of real users. Third, comes the iteration phase, whereby the newly commercialized technologies are improved, sometimes leading to new paradigms.
Take digital payments as an example. Why did NSCAI look at digital payments? This is an example of a data-driven system that it favours. Digital payments are easy to track and to build a complete database of each individual’s purchases. If everyone uses a digital-payment system, all economic activity across society can be captured. While Paypal pioneered the technology, the digital-payment app was universally adopted in China. In 2018, the payment-app volume in China was 12.8 trillion dollars, compared to 578 billion dollars for Paypal. Why? China didn’t have an existing banking system to overcome, as we do in the West. The Chinese adopted the digital payment system en masse to pay for their e-commerce and digital services, allowing all the information from these transactions to be collected and centrally stored. The consolidation of payments has led to the largest money markets and financial-tech companies in the world, which are then able to expand globally. For instance, India’s largest payment app is majority owned by Alibaba (a major Chinese company). Skipping credit cards and other payment systems that constrain policy in the West, the Chinese have been able to “leapfrog” from cash to digital. NSCAI identified our banking practices as a constraint that would need to be replaced by a Chinese-style social-credit system.
The same story can be told of facial recognition. Breakthroughs using machine learning for image recognition began in the USA. However, thanks to government support and the lack of regulatory barriers, as well as a huge population to exploit, China was able to leapfrog ahead of the USA in its use of mass surveillance for compiling stores of government data. It is being used all across China for entry to office buildings and making payments.
Another goal of the NSCAI is autonomous (self-driving) cars. Individual ownership is wasteful since cars spend ninety-five percent of the time idle. Fleets of autonomous cars are more logical. Brand and driver experience is irrelevant in a self-driving fleet. Corporate decision makers buy cars in bulk for their fleet. Advertising to the individual would be a thing of the past as individuals are digitized and aggregated for the convenience of government/industry. The CCP aims to clean up smoggy Chinese cities and take the lead in the electric-car industry. China spent billions subsidizing electric car makers to make it the largest manufacturer of electric cars and buses in the world. It leads in the production of electric-car batteries, which will ensure its domination of the export market.
Why will China achieve mass adoption of autonomous vehicles before the USA? Because China is not constrained by regulations; the government can act to fulfill whatever goal it chooses. China is not constrained by people’s expectations or customs in relation to industrialization and technology. If it achieves mass adoption of autonomous vehicles, it can then build upon that base, whereas the West has to rid itself of what NSCAI calls its legacy system of private ownership of driven cars.
As an example of China’s comparative advantage over the USA, the NSCAI cites ridesharing, which originated in the United States. However, due to extreme urban density and a lack of mass car ownership (like in America), ridesharing volume in China is double the rest of the world combined. As a result of that level of ridesharing, new features are being added, including a smart-city platform.
China is way ahead in developing smart cities. A private company, Alibaba, was chosen to carpet cities with cameras and collaborate with government in the creation of the resulting smart cities. Alibaba is able to “gather information like car and foot traffic based on surveillance cameras.” The argument is that practical decisions can be made regarding construction and traffic directives “based on complete data of how every person is moving through the city in real time.” In a smart city, the state knows everything about everybody.
Modern infrastructure like roads, bridges, and high-speed rail were all invented in the West. China needed to build the same level of infrastructure in a generation. They poured more concrete in three years than the USA did throughout the entire twentieth century. The population is concentrated in urban centres. Shanghai has a greater population than all of Canada. The governent invested heavily in infrastructure. The NSCAI sees this as China’s comparative advantage. And now China is exporting its know-how internationally, displacing America as the centre of the modern world system, increasingly technological.
AI for medical diagnosis was born in the West. However, NSCAI expects these systems to reach mass deployment in China first, because of the lack of doctors to serve its huge population and absence of regulatory constraints. In other words, the Chinese state can impose what it chooses. (There is something ironic in this one, since medical doctors in the West are collaborating with the very technocrats looking to throw them out of business.) In this case, the Chinese could export their AI medical technologies, thereby setting international norms. (The NSCAI never asks what kind of society people want or is desirable; the question is simply how America can lead in a future of Artificial Intelligence?)
NCSAI laments that China will likely lead the world in creating state datasets in biotech and healthcare. They argue that, in the near future, “it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Chinese government require every citizen to have their DNA sequenced and stored in government databases, something nearly impossible to imagine in places as privacy conscious as the US and Europe.” The Chinese have already begun, with “Tencent named to the National AI Team for medical diagnosis using computer vision and a logical next step would be medical advancements utilizing government DNA data.”
China has a system of Real Name Verification that ties you to a government ID number. You need this to get a phone number or use online services. NSCAI sees that this could lead to complete profiling of each individual as data from all levels of government and private businesses could be collated. (You couldn’t escape the security state and big tech.) The government could score citizens based on their demographic profile, leading to predicting their future actions.
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“In the press and politics of America and Europe, AI is painted as something to be feared that is eroding privacy and stealing jobs. Conversley, China views it as both a tool for solving major macroeconomic challenges in order to sustain their economic miracle, and an oppotunity to take technological leadership on the global stage.”
To quote NSCAI: “mass surveillance is a killer application for deep learning.” Surveillance is one of the first and best customers for AI. An “entire generation of AI unicorns is collecting the bulk of their yearly revenue from government security contracts.” AI companies like Yitu and Sense Time, funded by the government, advertise on their websites that police departments are using their facial recognition technologies to assist in solving all types of crimes. Likewise, police are convicting people through monitoring phone calls with iFlyTek’s voice-recognition technology.
Once these technologies are developed and deployed, they can be expanded to other uses as needed. (In other words, once you take this road, there’s no turning back. And you don’t know just where you’re going.)
China’s Ministry of Science and Technology has created a National AI Team and is hand-picking companies to fulfill key areas: Baidu is assigned to develop self-driving vehicles; Alibaba is in charge of smart cities; Tencent is working on computer vision for medical diagnoses; and iFlyTek has been given responsibility for voice recognition.
In China, executives of these companies openly embrace their collaboration with the government. NSCAI contrasts that with Silicon Valley’s reticence to be seen working with the American security state, (which, of course, they do). For NSCAI, America is handicapped by its legacy of individual freedom. The same is true of all of Western society. The Edward Snowden phenomenon could not have happened in China. Whom would he have told that private companies are handing people’s personal data over to the government? Who would have cared? In China, it’s already assumed, if not explicitly stated. Anyway, if you were a Chinese person, what would you do if you objected to the fact that the government already knows everything about you? The moment you even thought of proposing a political change, there would be a knock at the door. (Remember Winston Smith.)
We should be able to see now what Eric Schmidt and his NSCAI saw as the challenge facing the USA. The problem with America is Americans. They have inherited a legacy of personal freedom and distrust of government. The NSCAI is jealous of the power the Chinese state is able to exercise over the Chinese.
So, what did the NSCAI want in 2019? It was trying to imagine a way to castrate Americans and all their traditional allies. How to make the people of the Western world impotent in the face of their governments? (And then came covid!)
The Pentagon, Intelligence, and tech giants all want the same thing. They want the absolute power that the Chinese state has over its population. It will only be then that America can retain its prominence in the world. Only by becoming China can America win.
The sad thing is that Americans are handing them the victory. So are Canadians and all of the Western world. We definitely needed to affect major changes globally. But abdicating our natural rights as humans and handing power over to dictators? Was that the best option?
Anyway, that’s what we’re doing.
Next, we’ll examine how the NSCAI reacted to the fabrication of a global pandemic. It was almost as though they were waiting for it.