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Government AI The Military Technology

White House Earmarks New Money For AI and Quantum Computing (nytimes.com) 44

The Trump administration on Monday unveiled its $4.8 trillion budget proposal which, among other things, includes plans to increase federal funding for the development of AI and quantum computing. "The technologies are expected to become an important part of national security, and some worry the United States is behind China in their development," reports The New York Times. From the report: The funding [...] would direct more money for A.I. research to the Defense Department and the National Science Foundation. The administration also wants to spend $25 million on what it calls a national "quantum internet," a network of machines designed to make it much harder to intercept digital communication. For several years, technologists have urged the Trump administration to back research on artificial intelligence -- which could affect things as diverse as weapons and transportation -- and quantum computing, a new way to build super-powerful computers. China's government, in particular, has made building these machines a priority, and some national security experts worry that the United States is at risk of falling behind.

The proposed spending follows earlier administration moves. In 2018, President Trump signed a law that earmarked $1.2 billion for quantum research. The Energy Department recently began distributing its portion of that money -- about $625 million -- to research labs in industry, academia and government. [...] The new budget proposal would increase funding for artificial intelligence research at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a research arm of the Defense Department, to $249 million from $50 million, and at the National Science Foundation to $850 million from about $500 million. The administration also vowed to double funding for A.I. and quantum computing research outside the Defense Department by 2022. Big tech companies have invested heavily in A.I. research over the last decade. But many experts have worried that universities and government labs have lost much of their talent to businesses. Under the new funding plan, the National Science Foundation would apply $50 million to help train A.I. experts.

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White House Earmarks New Money For AI and Quantum Computing

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  • ... $4.8 trillion budget proposal which, among other things, includes plans to increase federal funding for the development of AI and quantum computing...

    ...The Energy Department recently began distributing its portion of that money -- about $625 million -- to research labs in industry, academia and government..

    But when China did this, the American government complained, saying the Chinese government largely funded/subsidized Huawei. Now the same government is doing exactly that!!

    Hypocrisy I must add, just in line with hypocrisy surrounding radio Free Asia, the VoA and many others.

    That is, the USA can fund these and there's no problem. If Russia or China does something similar, then that's a bad thing!!

    • by DNS-and-BIND ( 461968 ) on Tuesday February 11, 2020 @01:31AM (#59714638) Homepage
      This is research, not funding a company directly. Besides, our platform is America first and this is entirely congruent with that.
      • "Our"

        Ahahahahaha

        You actually think the Republicans care about you, little man? You're not remotely rich enough.

        • What a weak argument. You got nothin'.

          The Democrats seem to think that perchance they didn't call people racists, sexists, homophobes, and Islamophobes enough. Maybe if you just verbally shat upon the stupid, uneducated, hateful, and soon-to-be-extinct white masses in flyover country who put Trump over the top, you could have shamed enough of us irredeemable rubes into voting for a party and an ideology that clearly hates our guts.

          We were totally going to support Hillary continuing Obama's work, but then

          • I would suggest giving up on the identity politics and tribalism garbage. It is not the solution to liberals doing the same. Who hates who? As for that second paragraph, you need to get over the fact that Hillary lost the election. Why are you even talking about her?

            That whole bathroom non sequitur is just a bogeyman someone has convinced you to be scared of. You really think they will pass a law and a bunch of perverts are going to just pop on a dress and peep on your kid in the bathroom? And what, y
            • Oh, I'd love to give up on the identity politics and go back to when all of us were just plain Americans. Unfortunately that's not my decision. The Democrats are all in on identity politics. The gap between the left and the American people is now vast and I see no reason why that should change.

              As in wicked religion, the accusers tell us we are guilty of all manner of sins, and in so doing they distinguish themselves as innocent. Like Milton's Satan, hubris bears no responsibility, being only a victim. The

          • The Democrats ...

            Wow you have a massive and I mean MASSIVE case of Democrat derangement syndrome. No one can criticise the Republicans without a "zomg but HILLARY" from you. I didn't actually read your post you see, but I bet you did mention Hillary. Repeatedly. You usually do because you're completely obsessed.

  • by Anonymous Coward
    "White House Earmarks..." I didn't know that money has ears.

    This article helps everyone understand the overall issues: President Trump made 16,241 false or misleading claims in his first three years. [washingtonpost.com] (To Jan. 20, 2020, more since then.)
    • Let me do your job. Trump submitted a budget proposal to Congress, which is free to ignore any or all of it. The internal allocations after Congress agrees on the dollar amounts are what matters, if this really gets where this request suggests.

      It's a good step in research, but hardly a solid dollar commitment at this point.

  • Looks like someone has been listening to Andrew Yang.

  • Ahhh, it's so nice to be in a profession that benefits from both the Republican and Democratic versions of socialism, roflmao. Thanks Trump!

  • The DOE does seem to find ways to jump into things much too late. One industry is spending a ton of money on a field, I think its time for government labs to work on something else.

  • by edi_guy ( 2225738 ) on Tuesday February 11, 2020 @12:46AM (#59714580)

    Where is the Ross Perot for the 21st century?

    "This brings the total FY2019 deficit to $984 billion,26 percent ($205 billion) higher than last year’s deficit."
    "CBO Projected end-of-year FY 2020 Total Deficit: $1.008 trillion"

    - https://bipartisanpolicy.org/r... [bipartisanpolicy.org]

    • Responding to my own post is bad form, but I didn't realize that the US has crossed the 100% debt-to-GDP barrier. Not the best of company on this list. Need to seriously tackle the Fed Govt expenditures on healthcare and reduce military spending. Tit for tat on EPA, foreign aid, doesn't mean a thing.

      Japan 237%
      Venezuela 214%
      Sudan 177%
      Greece 174%
      Lebanon 157%
      Italy 133%
      Eritrea 127%
      Cape Verde 125%
      Mozambique 124%
      Portugal 119
      Barbados 117%
      Singapore 109%
      United States 106%

      • Debt entirely in your own currency is not the same as external debt. That is the lesson anyone with half a brain should have gained from Japan by now. Chicken littles like Zerohedge&co have been wrong about Japan for decades. Japan has demographic problems, but it's debt is mostly irrelevant. They moved it from the pension funds to central bank balance sheet and it predictably didn't kick off hyper-inflation. Predictably for anyone but the chicken littles, most of which still haven't learned their lesso

        • by rho ( 6063 )

          You have a lot of confidence. So what if it doesn't cause hyper-inflation. Unless we get the debt under control, we will still have inflation. Inflation with flat wage growth is sustainable until it suddenly stops.

          Everybody knows this, which is why they're kicking the can down the road with massive immigration. Which will simply make the end result much worse when it inevitably comes.

          • That's mostly because a median American man-hour is getting less valuable relative to necessities (ie. housing in desirable locales, education, healthcare, fuel, food). Monetary/fiscal policy can help or hurt a little, but fundamentally how government gets its money is not a deciding factor.

            Also, it serves US purposes to have most of foreign investment go into treasuries rather than partial ownership of private companies. It's better they own paper than control over your economy ... it's easier to print pap

    • This is what winning looks like.

      Democrats have won the argument. Why not spend money on ourselves right now while we can? Hand the next administration a maxed out credit card. Fiscal conservativism is dead. Why bother reducing the deficit? Turns out the Democrats were right all along. Congratulations. You know how hard it is to change the minds of adults?

    • Where is the Ross Perot for the 21st century?

      "This brings the total FY2019 deficit to $984 billion,26 percent ($205 billion) higher than last year’s deficit." "CBO Projected end-of-year FY 2020 Total Deficit: $1.008 trillion"

      - https://bipartisanpolicy.org/r... [bipartisanpolicy.org]

      I guess Rand Paul is closest for that? But even his support among libertarians is hit and miss because that lot tends to be overly purist. Nobody takes this shit seriously anymore.

  • All research grants will now have quantum enabled AI section. :)
    • I just hope that they do their AI Quantum Computing in the Cloud with Blockchain technology. The grant money should just roll on in.

  • by pablo_max ( 626328 ) on Tuesday February 11, 2020 @03:15AM (#59714772)

    At this point I'd be happy to see any type of intelligence in the white house, artificial or not.

    • This administration is killing me! On some days of the week, they are anti-science/anti-technology . . . on other days they do this?!?!

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