The software chief at the Pentagon, Nicolas Chaillan, believes the United States will have “no competing chance against China” in cyber within the next two decades.
Chaillan, 37, resigned his post as the first chief software officer at the Pentagon last week over the slow pace of the United States’ cyber and tech development which is putting the nation at risk of falling behind China. In Chaillan’s view, the U.S. has already lost the battle.
“We have no competing fighting chance against China in 15 to 20 years. Right now, it’s already a done deal; it is already over in my opinion,” Chaillan told the Financial Times in his first media interview since resigning his post. There is “good reason to be angry,” he added.
Chaillan blamed misallocation of military resources, overregulation, and the failure of U.S. tech companies to aid the federal government in tech research for the United States’ poor position on tech and cyber. The Times reported:
“Whether it takes a war or not is kind of anecdotal,” he said, arguing China was set to dominate the future of the world, controlling everything from media narratives to geopolitics. He added US cyber defences in some government departments were at “kindergarten level”.
He also blamed the reluctance of Google to work with the US defence department on AI, and extensive debates over AI ethics for slowing the US down. By contrast, he said Chinese companies are obliged to work with Beijing, and were making “massive investment” into AI without regard to ethics.