ChinaEconTalk

ChinaEconTalk

By SupChinaBusiness
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ChinaEconTalk episodes

  • Second Breakfast: Gaza, SOUTHCOM, AI Nuke Analogies Stink, Generals Using AI (with M. Horowitz and L. Kahn!)

    Guests today include Michael Horowitz (Penn now, in the Biden years was DAS for Force Development and Emerging Capabilities + Director of the Emerging Capabilities Policy Office) and Lauren Kahn (worked with Michael in the DoD, now at CSET).

    The book that Mike recommended is free to download online! https://history.army.mil/portals/143/Images/Publications/catalog/30-4.pdf

    Outtro Music: The Shirelles, Soldier Boy

    00:00 Gaza and the Middle East Peace Process

    06:26 US-Latin American Policy and Military Engagement

    10:38 AI and Nuclear Weapons: A Seductive Analogy

    17:47 Nuclear Energy vs. AI: Lessons in Governance

    20:02 The Future of AI in Military Operations

    31:46 Transforming Military Lessons with AI

    37:38 Operational Surprise and Historical Context

    45:55 Social Acceptability of Military Technologies

    57:59 Ethics and Accuracy in AI Warfare


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    1 hr 5 min
  • Tarun Chhabra on the Stakes of AI Competition

    Tarun Chhabra is Head of National Security Policy at Anthropic, and previously served as the Deputy Assistant to the President and Coordinator for Technology and National Security on Biden’s NSC.

    Today, our conversation covers…

    • Why the US needs to maintain an advantage in the race for AI development against China,
      • Whether the US’s AI industry is prepared for future competition from China,
        • The lawyers vs. engineers debate, and what the US needs to build AI supply chains,
          • How government and industry can work together to across the AI development process.

            • Outro music: Stephen Wilson Jr. - Stand By Me (Live at The Print Shop) (YouTube Link)

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            1 hr 8 min
          • Anduril's Christian Brose on the Dangers of Unseriousness

            Chrisian Brose is the Chief Strategy Officer at Anduril Industries. He’s been at the forefront of the debate about how America needs to change in order to win a future war against a high-tech adversary like China. He’s the former staff director for the Senate Armed Services Committee and the author of the essential book, The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare.

            We discuss:

            • Why the U.S remains dangerously vulnerable to low-cost drone attacks and what it would take to get serious about defending the homeland,
              • How bureaucratic logjams and budget dysfunction stall America’s adoption of counter-drone and other critical defenses,
                • What the Ukraine war reveals about the future of warfare and what the US has yet to learn from it,
                  • Why confidence in American technological superiority is misplaced, and why state-of-the-art weapons may not guarantee a quick or decisive war,
                    • How humans will make military decisions in the age of AI.

                      • Outro music: Kay Kyser - Praise The Lord And Pass The Ammunition (YouTube Link)

                      Gracie Fields - Thing-Ummy-Bob (That's Going To Win The War) (YouTube Link)


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                      1 hr 30 min
                    • EMERGENCY POD: China's Rare Earth Export Controls

                      Chris Miller (chip wars), Chris McGuire (10 year State Dpt vet, check out the past episode on the feed) and I discuss a big move by MOFCOM to squeeze Trump in advance of their APEC summit.


                      Outtro Music: Paul Simon, Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAb2Mu0CRk4


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                      58 min
                    • AI Hardware Net Assessment: Why Huawei Can't Beat Nvidia

                      Last week, Jensen Huang said that China is “nanoseconds behind” the US in chipmaking. Is he right? Today, Chris McGuire joins ChinaTalk for a US-China AI hardware net assessment. Chris spent a decade as a civil servant in the State Department, serving as Deputy Senior Director for Technology and National Security on the NSC during the Biden administration and back at State for the initial months of Trump 2.0.

                      Today, our conversation covers:

                      • Huawei vs Nvidia, and whether China can compete with US AI chip production,

                      • Signs that chip export controls are working,

                      • Why Jensen is full of it when he says China is “nanoseconds behind”

                      • What sets AI chips apart from other industries China has indigenized,

                      • How the US has escalation dominance in a trade war with China, and the significance of BIS’s 50% rule,

                      • Chris’s advice for young professionals, including why they should still consider working in government.


                        Outtro Music: Abao Uduli https://open.spotify.com/track/176BwQLW0IGc2mhkkMe0yH

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                        1 hr 29 min
                      • RAND's Jeff Alstott on How Facts Can Shape Tech Policymaking

                        At long last, Jeff Alstott, the fairy godfather of DC AI policy, joins the show. He’s the founding director for RAND’s center for technology and security policy, TASP, worked at NSC, NSF and IARPA, and has a PhD in complex networks.


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                        1 hr 8 min
                      • Second Breakfast: The Future of Intelligence

                        Anthony Vinci, former CTO of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and author of the upcoming book The Fourth Intelligence Revolution, joins as Second Breakfast's first ever guest.


                        Outtro Music: Otis Redding, Something is Worrying Me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2ughAT80R8

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                        1 hr 24 min

                      About ChinaEconTalk

                      From the publisher's feed

                      A weekly conversation exploring China's economy and tech scene. Guests include a wide range of policy analysts, business professionals, journalists, and academics. A SupChina production, hosted by…