U.S. Trails China by a Decade in Quantum Computing
The United States is a decade behind China in quantum computing.
“China is about a decade ahead of us on quantum, and that's specifically because they never fought a war on terror,” said Theresa Melvin, chief technology officer for high-performance computing and artificial intelligence (AI) at Aerospike, a technology company.
Quantum computing leverages quantum mechanics to perform complex calculations exponentially faster than classical computers, making it crucial for military applications like cryptography, AI and simulations of advanced defense systems and strategies.
A Chinese daily recently published that scientists had harnessed computing power to break military-grade encryption. While this claim has been later debunked, it is widely recognized that Beijing has an advantage over the United States in this field.
“The fact that if they can actually break the encryption, whether or not we have post-quantum encryption, all the material we have classified will be available to them as soon as they break it,” said Tung Ho, director of the Center for Intelligence, Research and Analysis at Exovera, an information services business.
Speakers at a panel addressed AI, machine learning and quantum computing at TechNet Indo-Pacific on Tuesday in Honolulu, Hawaii.
The speakers also focused on the strategic competition with China in AI development, where they agreed the United States has an advantage.
Ho discussed how China views AI as a central element in battlefield rivalry with the U.S., where Beijing invests heavily to bridge a disadvantage.
Still, superiority for successful command and control is not about the weapon systems themselves but the data that drives them.
“In a fight that has a scale of a fight with China, the side that uses that data, the side that makes faster decisions, is the side that's going to win. And if we want to make faster decisions, we have to leverage artificial intelligence,” urged Trey Coleman, chief product officer at Raft, a communications technology company. "We need to start training the [AI] models now."
Also, the need for reliable AI systems in mission-critical spaces was another focus from the U.S. armed forces' perspective.
All the material we have classified will be available to them as soon as they break it.
“It's important to step back to define the highest level of development and use of AI that prioritizes ethics values over policy and legal requirements. The purpose is to use it in a way that prevents harm,” said Ed Barnabas, vice president and Indo-Pacific CTO at Booz Allen Hamilton, a consultancy.
Developers must be transparent, accountable and subject to continuous human oversight, according to Barnabas. He framed AI as societal responsibility, pointing out the dangers of blind trust in AI without proper checks.
Not all AI needs to be cutting-edge to be effective, according to one panelist, who also emphasized the importance of data quality.
“A lot of us are focused on data and thinking about how we can get these different data sets together and to speak one language,” said Rebecca Fair, information advantage senior vice president at Two Six Technologies, a technology company.
The panel “AI/ML as a Warfighting Advantage” was moderated by Lt. Gen. Susan S. Lawrence, USA (Ret.), president and CEO of AFCEA International. TechNet Indo-Pacific is organized by AFCEA International and the AFCEA Hawaii Chapter. SIGNAL Media is the official media of AFCEA International.
