Nicolas Chaillan speaks of ‘good reason to be angry’ as Beijing heads for ‘global dominance’

1. 11/10/21, 6:19 PM
US has already lost AI fight to China, says ex-Pentagon software chief | Financial Times
Page 1 of 4
https://www.ft.com/content/f939db9a-40af-4bd1-b67d-10492535f8e0?shareType=nongift
US has already lost AI fight to China,
says ex-Pentagon software chief
Nicolas Chaillan speaks of ‘good reason to be angry’
as Beijing heads for ‘global dominance’
yesterday
Nicolas Chaillan: US cyber defences in some government departments are at ‘kindergarten level’ © Monica
King
The Pentagon’s first chief software officer said he resigned in protest at
the slow pace of technological transformation in the US military, and
because he could not stand to watch China overtake America.
In his first interview since leaving the post at the Department of Defense a
week ago, Nicolas Chaillan told the Financial Times that the failure of the
US to respond to Chinese cyber and other threats was putting his
children’s future at risk.

2. 11/10/21, 6:19 PM
US has already lost AI fight to China, says ex-Pentagon software chief | Financial Times
Page 2 of 4
https://www.ft.com/content/f939db9a-40af-4bd1-b67d-10492535f8e0?shareType=nongift
We have no
competing fighting
chance against China
in 15 to 20 years.
Right now, it’s already
a done deal
Nicolas Chaillan
“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,” he
said, adding there was “good reason to be angry”
.
Chaillan, 37, who spent three years on a Pentagon-wide effort to boost
cyber security and as first chief software officer for the US Air Force, said
Beijing is heading for global dominance because of its advances in
artificial intelligence, machine learning and cyber capabilities.
He argued these emerging technologies were far more critical to
America’s future than hardware such as big-budget fifth-generation
fighter jets such as the F-35.
“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.
Chaillan said he plans to testify to Congress about the Chinese cyber
threat to US supremacy, including in classified briefings, over the coming
weeks.

3. 11/10/21, 6:19 PM
US has already lost AI fight to China, says ex-Pentagon software chief | Financial Times
Page 3 of 4
https://www.ft.com/content/f939db9a-40af-4bd1-b67d-10492535f8e0?shareType=nongift
Recommended
He acknowledged the US still outspends China by three times on defence,
but said the extra cash was immaterial because US procurement costs
were so high and spent in the wrong areas, while bureaucracy and
overregulation stood in the way of much-needed change at the Pentagon.
Chaillan’s comments came after a congressionally-mandated US national
security commission warned earlier this year that China could surpass the
US as the world’s AI superpower within the next decade.
Senior defence officials have acknowledged they “must do better” to
attract, train and retain young cyber talent, but have defended what they
argue is their responsible approach to the adoption of AI.
Michael Groen, a Marine Corps lieutenant general and director of the
defence department’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, told a conference
last week he wanted to field AI across the military in an incremental way,
saying its adoption would require a culture shift within the military.
His comments come after US secretary of defence Lloyd Austin said in
July his department “urgently needs” to develop responsible artificial
intelligence as a priority, adding a new $1.5bn investment would
accelerate the Pentagon’s adoption of AI over the next five years and that
600 AI efforts were already under way.
But he committed that his department would not “cut corners on safety,
security, or ethics”
.
A spokesperson for the Department of the Air Force said Frank Kendall,
secretary of the US Air Force, had discussed with Chaillan his
recommendations for the Department’s future software development
following his resignation and thanked him for his contributions.
Chaillan announced his resignation in a

4. 11/10/21, 6:19 PM
US has already lost AI fight to China, says ex-Pentagon software chief | Financial Times
Page 4 of 4
https://www.ft.com/content/f939db9a-40af-4bd1-b67d-10492535f8e0?shareType=nongift
blistering letter at the start of
September, saying military officials
were repeatedly put in charge of cyber
initiatives for which they lacked
experience, decrying Pentagon
“laggards” and absence of funding.
“[W]e are setting up critical infrastructure to fail,” he said in his letter,
which made only cursory reference to advances by China. “We would not
put a pilot in the cockpit without extensive flight training; why would we
expect someone with no IT experience to be close to successful?
[ . . .]While we wasted time in bureaucracy, our adversaries moved further
ahead.”
Robert Spalding, a retired Air Force brigadier general who served as
defence attaché in Beijing, said Chaillan had “rightfully” complained and
added he too had resigned early in order to create his own encrypted
defence technology solutions after being frustrated by “archaic” systems
while flying B-2 stealth bombers at work.
Chaillan, who naturalised as a US citizen in 2016 and led efforts to install
“zero trust” cyber security measures at the Department of Homeland
Security before joining the Pentagon, said he was a polarising force at the
Department of Defense and that he alarmed some senior officials who
thought he should keep his complaints “in the family”
.
The serial technological entrepreneur, who started his first business at 15
in France, said he also began to feel stale because he spent his three-year
stint “fixing basic cloud things and laptops” instead of innovating.