The resignation of Jeffrey Hinton from Google is a critical indication of the dangers of artificial intelligence and the huge technology industry to the future of civil societies. Massive financing and unreasonable military purposes have always had their way towards adapting artificial intelligence and big technology for military purposes that tend to subject civil societies to the power and control of the machine in human life. Perhaps this is what Hinton criticized, considering artificial intelligence as realistic evidence of the merger between the actors of the Big Tech industry and the Big Defense entities.
Recently, the US Department of Defense attempted to take over Silicon Valley, militarize its scientists, and control its working methods. And this is through the increase in military contracts, and the establishment of outposts in Silicon Valley, such as the Experimental Defense Innovation Unit (DIUx) to produce advanced technologies for the army based on computerized combat and revolutionize military affairs. Hence, it becomes difficult to understand how the US military operates today without analyzing its deep ties to the big tech industry and its growing funding of companies specializing in artificial intelligence, which will inevitably influence the nature of civilian societies in the next few decades.
Algorithms… Between the militarization of knowledge and the Pentagon’s authority
Over the past two decades, the Pentagon has spent billions of dollars on technologies that have turned entire digital devices, mobile and Internet-enabled, into individual miniature machines for big data production, producing millions of algorithm models every day that underpin deep machine learning about civil societies and ordinary individuals. . Today, the US Defense Intelligence Agency permanently and without a warrant uses commercially available geolocation data collected from individual cell phones for purely intelligence purposes.[1]. Where it can use this data not only for espionage, but also to rebuild social networks, and even to target individuals with deadly attacks under considerations of national security, and to wage what is known as a virtual war or a war of algorithms.
In this regard, Silicon Valley presents itself as a major hub for this kind of defense and intelligence work based on the militarization of data and the rise of the digital defense industry.[2]. This is what the Pentagon wanted regarding a revolution in military affairs, as a doctrine it formulated since the beginning of the 1990s, leaning heavily towards military solutions based on technology and digital control; To create new types of military maneuvers and fighting by algorithms, especially since the rise of competing countries such as China and Russia has stimulated a technological arms race. Accordingly, computerized combat has clearly taken center stage among the elites of the US military and intelligence establishment.
The fusion of the great defense and the huge technology industry
Recently, a base of congressmen and Pentagon officials coalesced to encapsulate the relationship between the military and Silicon Valley’s digital and defense technology industry. One of the driving factors behind this merger is that both sides benefit; One side benefits from obtaining weapons of war and activating the doctrine of a modern war machine based on technology, and the other benefits from obtaining funds and establishing the doctrine of cash and entrepreneurship in the field of the new huge combat technology industry. The links of this merger are based on the political contributions to persuading public opinion, the acquisition of social media and supportive media, and the political approval of the expansion of military spending to subjugate the large technology companies and the digital defense industries.
For example, the CIA developed an entity (In-Q-Tel), to take advantage of technological innovations in the military war sector.[3]. This is done by making direct investments in monitoring technologies, tracking the geography of protests and potential interactive activities by filtering posts, data and images available on social media.[4]and train algorithms to classify and recognize millions of images as Project Maven[5]which was funded by the US Department of Defense with an investment size of more than 300 million dollars, and developed by the largest mega-technology companies in Silicon Valley[6], where the US military used the project’s algorithms to support drone missions against ISIS in its wars in Iraq and Syria. Not only that, but Li Fang stated that In-Q-Tel has backed an investment in skin care companies that are developing painless ways to remove the outermost layer of skin.[7]which is a technique to genetically obtain unique biomarkers, including collecting potential DNA by storing it in the form of digital models and codes for a huge database, and then using this collected data for purposes and tasks that ultimately devolve to strengthen the control of intelligence and military agencies over civil society within projects huge to control the future of science and humanity[8].
It appears that the creation of both (In-Q-Tel) and[9]DIUx and other similar entities are a prime example of: (1) the militarization of the big tech industry, (2) feeding covert cyber operations to US national security, and (3) a link between the CIA on the one hand and Silicon Valley scientists and engineers on the other. Another, (4) the control of CIA venture capital (as an intermediary investment) over the production and development of the big tech industry and artificial intelligence.
Divide within Silicon Valley and resist recruitment and mergers
Indeed, the CIA, in cooperation with the military-industrial complex, has succeeded in outperforming global private competitors in the field of big technology; By militarizing and recruiting engineers, hackers, AI scientists, and programmers[10]. In this regard, I interpreted several analyzes specialized in big technology and the economics of new digital wars[11]that the recruitment and militarization of mega-technology companies came to: (1) accelerate the integration of the US Department of Defense with the outputs and outcomes of machine learning and machine force control, and convert the massive volume of available big data into actionable intelligence and rapid development, (2) the deployment of robotic and defensive weapons systems High-tech digital, (3) the growing artificial intelligence arms race between the United States on the one hand and Russia and China on the other, in an attempt to control the structure of the new world order through massive technology, artificial intelligence systems, and killer robots with systematic goals.
On the other hand, others believed that the militarization of the huge technology industry would inevitably link the American economy more tightly than ever before with endless successive wars and conflicts with the outside world and even at the internal level of American society itself, with the increasing internal conflicts of the huge technology industry companies, that is, between executives. Those companies contracting with US military and intelligence institutions on the one hand, and senior engineers and software developers who reject military contracts to manufacture technology and militarize science to develop war technologies, on the other hand. This is what prompted these engineers and scientists of Silicon Valley to call for a broader discussion about the ethics of artificial intelligence, and to demand that they have a say in how to use their science and innovative efforts on modern technologies that can transform civil societies into actual battlefields.[12].
This is why quite a few Silicon Valley scientists and engineers have appreciated the seriousness of the escalating recruitment and systematic militarization of the tech industry. Where some of the scientists and engineers of the Valley in general understood that once they produced knowledge, they would likely have no control over the way it was used, and that it could be employed as devastating weapons for civil societies not only against the level of other countries, but against the segments of American society itself. Many of the scientists and engineers who now object to Silicon Valley’s militarization probably never imagined they would become “shadow members,” recruits of the new tech military-industrial complex. This is what the Microsoft demonstrators recently raised: “We did not register to develop weapons,” and to work for companies working in the shadows to develop the field of war and armament.[13]. That inevitably reflected a schism between CEOs and Silicon Valley’s chief engineers. The logical consequence of the Pentagon’s control of the huge technology industry is the rise of political demands for scientists and engineers in the same valley in order to try to control the future of virtual wars and digital battlefields, whose impact on civil societies will be exclusively in their hands.[14].
Accordingly, Silicon Valley scientists and engineers were aware of their deliberate exclusion by executives from discussions about the nature of corporate cooperation in developing artificial intelligence weapons and procuring military contracts in areas of current conflicts to develop war technologies.[15]. This is indicated by Roberto Gonzalez when he stated that such exclusion was a fundamental reason for awakening a latent sense of class consciousness among the scientists and engineers of the valley and describing themselves as a hidden new proletariat controlled by executives integrated with senior Pentagon officials and the new military-technological complex. They also found that this could inevitably lead to a radical change in social structures and control of civil societies, reshaping power, politics and resistance within them, and ushering in an era of digital repression within American society itself, with the decline of global democracies and the control of US military institutions on the huge technology industry and modern digital technologies. .
Conclusion
We find that the Pentagon’s quiet acquisition of mega-technology companies and the militarization of scientists provides a critical look at how the US military operates and weaponizes technology and data for new types of warfare that will change the nature of military conflict, and will affect the structure of civil societies and the lives of peoples, as new military technologies threaten Based on artificial intelligence, human survival.
[1] Byron Tau. (Jan. 22, 2021). Military Intelligence Agency Says It Monitored US Cellphone Movements Without Warrant: DIA says it buys commercially available geolocation data and has used it five times in recent years for authorized investigations.. The Wall Street Journal. Available at:https://cutt.us/CemkM
[2] Roberto J. González. (April 2022). War Virtually: The Quest to Automate Conflict, Militarize Data, and Predict the Future. University of California Press.
[3] John T. Reinert. (2013). In-Q-Tel: The Central Intelligence Agency as Venture Capitalist. Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business. Volume 33 | Issue 3. Available at: https://cutt.us/1UGrh. See also, IQT HISTORY. Available at: https://www.iqt.org/about-iqt/
[4] Lee Fang. (April 14, 2016). THE CIA IS INVESTING IN FIRMS THAT MINE YOUR TWEETS AND INSTAGRAM PHOTOS: Among 38 previously undisclosed companies receiving CIA venture capital funding, several are developing tools to mine social media. The Intercept. Available at:https://cutt.us/NywqP
[5] Frank Wolfe. (November 12, 2020). NDAA Conference Bill Authorizes $250 Million for Project Maven. Defense Daily. Available at: https://cutt.us/Kn3cE. See also: DEPUTY SECRETARY OF DEFENSE. (APR 26, 2017). Establishment of an Algorithmic Warfare Cross-Functional Team (Project Maven). WASHINGTON, DC 20301-1010. Available at: https://cutt.us/9DZUw
[6] Colin Demarest. (Oct 26, 2022). Pentagon’s Project Maven transition stymied by Congress, official says. Sections. Available at: https://cutt.us/eJg0y
[7] Lee Fang. (April 8, 2016). CIA’S VENTURE CAPITAL ARM IS FUNDING SKIN CARE PRODUCTS THAT COLLECT DNA: A company with an innovative line of cosmetic products caught the attention of Oprah’s Lifestyle magazine and beauty bloggers. Now the CIA is involved, too. The Intercept. Available at:https://cutt.us/0jikq
[8] Lee Fang. (May 5, 2022). AS THE SEC CRACKS DOWN ON SHADY SPACs, CIA OFFICIALS GET IN ON THE ACTION: Leaders of In-Q-Tel, a CIA-backed venture fund, and retired CIA officials are getting in on the latest stock market trend. The Intercept. Available at: https://cutt.us/YHTkg
[9] Defense Innovation Unit. Available at: https://www.diu.mil/
[10] Brian Fung. (December 8, 2022). Pentagon awards multibillion-dollar cloud contracts to Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Oracle. CNN Business. Available at: https://cutt.us/BWoYD
[11] Roberto J. González. (April 2022). War Virtually: The Quest to Automate Conflict, Militarize Data, and Predict the Future. University of California Press.
[12] Kate Conger. (May 14, 2018). Google Employees Sign in Protest Against the Pentagon Contract. Gizmodo. Available at: https://cutt.us/47u46
[13] Lee Fang. (March 9, 2019). DEFENSE TECH STARTUP FOUNDED BY TRUMP’S MOST PROMINENT SILICON VALLEY SUPPORTERS WINS SECRETIVE MILITARY AI CONTRACT: Palmer Luckey entered the tech industry with VR headsets for gaming. Now, he’s deploying them for real battles through the military’s Project Maven initiative. The Intercept. Available at: https://cutt.us/6TCfs
[14] EMILY BIRNBAUM. (Feb 25, 2019). Microsoft CEO defends $479 million contract with Pentagon after employee protest. The Hill. Available at: https://cutt.us/5EbNh. See also: Ellie Kaufman, Zachary Cohen. (July 6, 2021). Pentagon cancels $10 billion cloud contract given to Microsoft over Amazon. CNN Business. Available at: https://cutt.us/2FyKz
[15] NITASHA TIKU. (June 29, 2018). Why Tech Worker Dissent Is Going Viral: The revolts at Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Salesforce are part of a growing political awakening over contracts with government agencies. WIRED. Available at: https://cutt.us/SqZ42