Mint | How to govern the AI industry must be accorded high priority

The manner in which the world’s big artificial intelligence (AI) companies are scaring the world’s governments and asking for regulation reminds me of how incumbent telcos used to push ‘Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt’ (FUD) 20 years ago. We should suspect that the motives are similar: to use regulation to slam the gates shut for new entrants and use incumbency to acquire greater power over public policy. If OpenAI and Google are really worried that their products are dangerous and pose severe, unpredictable risks to public safety, they could stop developing them. It is reasonable, therefore, to suspect that their calls for regulation of so-called foundation models are partly motivated by the desire to lock-in their dominant market positions. Read the full article here.

A Road Map for Quad’s Emerging Technology Working Group

The second in-person summit of Quad is all set to be held in Japan on May 24. The leaders of the four countries are expected to announce future partnerships and projects across various sectors. As many as 12 working groups have been created thus far as part of the Quad grouping. Among them is the critical and emerging technology working group that was established in March 2021 to foster technological collaboration. Here are the three main areas of focus that Quad should focus on to create an immediate impact in the technology domain:

China’s New Focus on US Cyber Activities

In the last few years, Chinese companies have released several reports accusing U.S. agencies of cyberattacks on Chinese infrastructure. Although China has long released data on the numbers of U.S. hacking attempts, detailed reports were not a common occurrence. Recent reports indicate that Beijing is intensifying its efforts at narrative-building by focusing on malicious cyber activities of the United States.

India, Japan, Australia Need Tech Alliance to Counter China and Huawei’s Monopoly

All three countries are part of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue or Quad along with the US, in which technology cooperation has been a key factor in bringing together the States. When discussing the Indo-Pacific, the role of China remains key to these countries formulating their responses and multilateral policies. It is evident that China has now reached the stage of expanding its technological sphere of influence in the region. The private sector, coupled with continuous state support, has managed to gain a foothold in some key technology areas that have served Beijing’s diplomatic ambitions well.

How Emerging Technologies Are Driving China’s Readiness For Modern Warfare

In this year’s annual session of the National People’s Congress, Premier Li Keqiang presented a finance report with an estimated 1.45 trillion yuan (US$230 billion) set aside for defence spending in 2022. Although that figure is an increase on last year, it is still less than the US military budget, which is expected to top US$770 billion. This translates into a significant gap in US and Chinese military power. As a result, China’s military modernisation and efforts to leverage technology in warfare have so far been directed to reduce this gap. Thus, Beijing is working to incorporate modern technology into the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). With the development of space and electronic warfare capabilities over the past two decades, China’s armed forces have started to embrace critical and emerging technologies.

With Eye on China, India Joins Race To Weaponise Quantum Tech in Future Military Conflicts

On February 23, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) made an announcement that went a bit under the radar but can have huge ramifications in the future for developing military technologies. The official statement given by the DRDO stated that a joint team of DRDO and IIT-Delhi successfully demonstrated a Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) link for the very first time in the country between the cities of Prayagraj and Vindhyachal in the state of Uttar Pradesh. An interesting thing to note is that these cities are located at a distance of 100 kilometres from each other. This marks the beginning of the Indian military complex utilising an emerging technology like quantum to enhance domestic defensive capabilities.

Understanding China’s High Tech Espionage Efforts To Modernise The Military

The Department of Defense (DoD) under the United States government recently released its yearly report on the military and security developments in China. This report, acronymised as the DoD report, gives a comprehensive understanding of the progress made by the Chinese armed forces over the year along with elucidating the future plans of the Chinese military. One of the interesting aspects of last year’s DoD report was the focus on China’s industrial espionage efforts on certain advanced technologies which the government thinks holds the key to enhancing the quality of their military systems.

Why India-Australia Technology Cooperation is a Welcome Development

Collaboration on critical and emerging technologies has been high on the agenda for the Australian and Indian governments in recent months. On 17 November 2021, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison gave a virtual inaugural address at the Bengaluru Technology Summit. Morrison’s speech was accompanied by an announcement expressing Australia’s commitment to establish a Centre of Excellence for Critical and Emerging Technology Policy in India. The very next day, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave a keynote address at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s Sydney Dialogue, in which he emphasised the importance of technology to the two countries’ comprehensive strategic partnership, which was established in 2020.

Industrial Policies Alone Cannot Give Desired Results in Tech Sector

The India Cellular and Electronics Industry (ICEA) recently released a report detailing the effects of import tariffs on the domestic electronics industry. Currently, India’s import tariff rate for electronic and technology goods is much more than those of competing countries like China and Vietnam. This has been on the back of the recently announced 76,000 crore package to build the Indian semiconductor industry. But high import tariffs, trade restrictions, and taxation meant as protectionist measures decline the competitiveness of Indian goods in the global market. More importantly, it completely negates the effect of industrial policy measures which are meant to be supportive and business-friendly like the production linked incentive (PLI) scheme.

What’s Behind China’s New National Standardization Outline Document?

China’s “Standards 2035” project gained headlines in April 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. October 2021 saw the release of the National Standardization Development (NSD) outline document as the first official document detailing China’s ambitions in the coming decade in the realm of technical standardization processes. The NSD visualizes a standardized system that promotes high-tech innovation and “opening up” of the technology sector, while also leading to high-quality development. The core points covered in the document provide a glimpse into the Chinese state’s strategic approach toward technical standards.

A Four-Point Action Plan for Quantum Technologies

In the 2020 Budget speech, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the National Mission for Quantum Technologies and Applications (NM-QTA) with a total outlay of ₹8000 crore over five years for strengthening the quantum industry in the country. A Lok Sabha question posed in July 2021 enquired about the status and progress of the mission. The reply that was provided by the minister of state for science and technology, Jitendra Singh, mentioned that the mission had not even received approval yet. Singh also announced that no funds were allocated, disbursed or utilised under NM-QTA during the financial year 2020-21.

The Evolution of Synthetic Thought

Download the Essay in PDFThe world has never been enough. At least for us, humans. The endeavour to become more than what we are lies at the heart of human civilisation. We have overcome challenges of nature, obstacles of time, physical and mental impediments. Perhaps nothing reflects the culmination of this collective zeal to surpass our capabilities as much as Transhumanism.Transhumanism is a belief that human beings can transcend the limits of physical and mental limitations through technology. For some, a Transhumanist is an ideal to strive towards, and for others, it is both a source and an answer to all of humanity’s problems.Borne out of a belief system that humankind should reach the pinnacle of its capabilities and beyond, Transhumanism comprises augmentations to overcome limitations. While technological augmentations may be a recent endeavour, primitive humans have utilised tools to augment their capabilities. From the wooden spears, they used to hunt, the prosthetic wooden and iron legs to augment walking, all the way to lances in warfare, humans have employed augmentations throughout history. Eyeglasses, clothing, and ploughs signalled a rise in using tools to augment our capabilities.The rise in medical technology, genetic science, and electronics from the 1990s, has opened new frontiers in human capabilities. We don’t merely use technology as enablers but have started adopting it from within in the form of cybernetics. Armbands, deep-brain stimulators, physical and neural augmentations, mechanical and cybernetic implants, and potentially gene editing are technologies that humans can use to enhance themselves and achieve capabilities previously unheard of.On one hand, science is driving innovation in augmentation, and on the other, Transhumanism has given rise to a significant amount of philosophical thought. Notions of challenging what it means to be human, virtues and vices of post-humanism, and the dangers of uncontrolled immortality provoke deep questions that do not have answers but encourage much debate and discourse. There is also an entire section of humanity that believes that the very notion of Transhumanism is irrelevant, for any such technological advancements are several decades away.Transhumanism has generated fear and enthusiasm in equal measures. While proponents extol the virtues of embracing technology to enhance our lives, detractors fear what this will mean to be human at all. The widespread availability of Transhumanist technologies could result in radical life extension, overall well-being and improper perpetuation could create class divides, encourage oppression and even alter geopolitical landscapes.For the first time in human history, we can radically alter our minds and bodies and take shortcuts to the various destinations of natural evolution. This essay looks at Transhumanism from an emerging technological paradigm and attempts to provide an objective view of where Transhumanism is headed and what it means to the rest of the world.[pdf-embedder url="https://takshashila.org.in/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/TE-Evolution-of-Synthetic-Thought-CRG-2019-01.pdf"]Download the Essay in PDF