An ex-Googler takes aim at China

From: POLITICO's Digital Future Daily - Tuesday Aug 22,2023 08:03 pm
How the next wave of technology is upending the global economy and its power structures
Aug 22, 2023 View in browser
 
POLITICO's Digital Future Daily newsletter logo

By Ben Schreckinger

With help from Derek Robertson

China's flag is displayed next to the American flag on the side of the Old Executive Office Building. | AP Photo

The United States and Chinese flags. | Andrew Harnik/AP Photo

When President Joe Biden signed an executive order restricting tech investments in China this month, one of Congress’s designated advisers on China thought the order didn’t go nearly far enough.

In a sign of the times, as Silicon Valley warms up to working with the Pentagon after years of keeping its distance, the adviser comes not from the world of national security, but straight out of Google.

Jacob Helberg, a new addition to the United States–China Economic and Security Review Commission, is both emblematic of that ongoing hawkish turn — and determined to push it further.

A former policy adviser at Google, he is using his perch at the commission to push Silicon Valley to work hand-in-hand with the Department of Defense.

“China has a system of civil-military fusion,” he said in an interview. “We have a system of civil-military confusion.”

Last week, he called out Meta on social media for its policy on the acceptable use of its Llama 2 large language model, released in July. The policy, which makes the AI model freely available for commercial and research purposes, bans its use for military applications.

Helberg argues the military, which has struggled with AI acquisition, could make use of open-source models for applications like disinformation detection. But, he said, the Defense Department will abide by Meta’s ban, while China’s military would freely disregard it if it sees value in the model.

He blamed the ban on Silicon Valley’s cultural aversion to the military. Famously, in 2018 — in the middle of his four-year tenure at Google — a staff revolt forced the search giant to abandon its work on a Pentagon AI initiative, Project Maven, designed to automate video and image analysis.

 

But he’s calling on engineers to shed their reluctance to cooperate with the Pentagon, a shift that would make it easier for the military to tap into the private sector’s tech talent.

“That’s idealistic,” he said of engineers’ reservations, “but in the real world American democracy has created the conditions for these companies to rise and grow and ascend.”

The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment, and a spokesperson for Meta declined to comment.

Helberg, who was appointed by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy for a two-year term that began in January, is one of 12 members of the commission.

Outside of that posting, Helberg is also involved in politics as one half of a Silicon Valley power couple.

Along with his husband, Keith Rabois, a partner at venture firm Founders Fund, he has co-hosted fundraisers for the likes of Pete Buttigieg and Ron DeSantis. Last fall, the couple hosted a fundraiser for GOP Senate candidates in conjunction with Rabois’ fellow “PayPal Mafia” member, the “All In” podcast host David Sacks, who has become a bridge between Republican politicians and Silicon Valley moguls like Elon Musk.

Helberg comes to the commission as Washington’s tech rivalry with Beijing heats up and ramifications unfold for the U.S. tech sector.

In June, venture firm Sequoia Capital spun off its operations in China amid growing tensions.

And on Aug. 9, Biden signed an executive order restricting U.S. investments in China that fund the development of quantum computing, AI and advanced computer chips. Helberg said the restrictions should extend to other critical tech sectors, like biotech and materials science, citing the priority areas listed in Beijing’s Made in China 2025 industrial strategy.

Helberg said he is pushing the commission to recommend additional outbound investment restrictions to Congress.

The body was formed in 2000 to advise Congress on China relations as a concession to opponents of the country’s accession to the World Trade Organization. Since then, it has served as a bellwether for emerging developments in Sino-American relations: Its members were raising concerns about Huawei years before a series of restrictive measures imposed by the U.S. on the Chinese telecom giant rocked relations between the two countries.

The commission's next set of annual policy recommendations is due to be published in November.

 

A NEW PODCAST FROM POLITICO: Our new POLITICO Tech podcast is your daily download on the disruption that technology is bringing to politics and policy around the world. From AI and the metaverse to disinformation and cybersecurity, POLITICO Tech explores how today’s technology is shaping our world — and driving the policy decisions, innovations and industries that will matter tomorrow. SUBSCRIBE AND START LISTENING TODAY.

 
 
ai and white-collar work

The rise of artificial intelligence could be the genesis for a seismic shift in how white-collar firms bill clients, according to a Thomson Reuters survey of 1,200 people in the legal, accounting, tax, risk and trade compliance professions.

David Wong, Thomson Reuter’s chief product officer, broke down the implications of the report for DFD. He flagged a trend that was already happening in the United Kingdom, where firms charge customers for services based on the value provided instead of going by an hourly rate. “A number of firms are looking at the application of AI to the way that services are valued and priced,” Wong said.

That pricing shift, Wong said, “goes hand in hand” with the adoption of a technology that is supposed to boost worker productivity. With the use of AI in an assistive capacity, “maybe an hourly rate is no longer the right approach altogether,” Wong said.

The promised productivity boost means “lawyers or tech professionals or risk professionals that use AI will replace those that don't use AI,” Wong said. He expects AI to be “hard to avoid” in these professions within the next five years, embedded in widely used digital tools like Microsoft Word and Westlaw. — Mohar Chatterjee

google and washington

A top Google exec on today’s POLITICO Tech podcast said the White House’s voluntary agreement with the company and a half-dozen other major firms developing AI should be the jumping-off point for future legislation.

Kent Walker, Google’s president of global affairs and chief legal officer, told POLITICO’s Steven Overly the company’s “hope is that this set of principles can be the framework for what may ultimately be a legislative or regulatory arrangement.” The principles in question largely focused on cybersecurity, protecting users from deepfakes, and increasing transparency around risk management.

One major question that still lingers on AI regulation, as POLITICO’s Mallory Culhane pointed out in this morning’s Morning Tech newsletter for Pro s, is the extent to which developers can be legally liable when they violate these guidelines. Walker was vague on the subject, suggesting that it should be handled on a case-by-case basis.

“The law is still going to be evolving over time,” Walker told Steven. “I think we are going to be able to get to case-by-case, reasonable allocation of rights and duties in each of these different areas. But I do think it's important to start with the facts on the ground.” — Derek Robertson

Tweet of the Day

Just in case

THE FUTURE IN 5 LINKS

Stay in touch with the whole team: Ben Schreckinger (bschreckinger@politico.com); Derek Robertson (drobertson@politico.com); Mohar Chatterjee (mchatterjee@politico.com); and Steve Heuser (sheuser@politico.com). Follow us @DigitalFuture on Twitter.

If you’ve had this newsletter forwarded to you, you can sign up and read our mission statement at the links provided.

 

DON’T MISS POLITICO’S TECH & AI SUMMIT: America’s ability to lead and champion emerging innovations in technology like generative AI will shape our industries, manufacturing base and future economy. Do we have the right policies in place to secure that future? How will the U.S. retain its status as the global tech leader? Join POLITICO on Sept. 27 for our Tech & AI Summit to hear what the public and private sectors need to do to sharpen our competitive edge amidst rising global competitors and rapidly evolving disruptive technologies. REGISTER HERE.

 
 
 

Follow us on Twitter

Ben Schreckinger @SchreckReports

Derek Robertson @afternoondelete

Steve Heuser @sfheuser

 

Follow us

Follow us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Follow us on Instagram Listen on Apple Podcast
 

To change your alert settings, please log in at https://www.politico.com/_login?base=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.politico.com/settings

This email was sent to by: POLITICO, LLC 1000 Wilson Blvd. Arlington, VA, 22209, USA

Please click here and follow the steps to .

More emails from POLITICO's Digital Future Daily

Aug 21,2023 08:01 pm - Monday

Let's nationalize AI. Seriously.

Aug 18,2023 08:01 pm - Friday

5 questions for Katherine Boyle

Aug 17,2023 08:02 pm - Thursday

The future on your dinner plate

Aug 16,2023 08:02 pm - Wednesday

A more immediate 'AI risk'

Aug 15,2023 08:13 pm - Tuesday

One think tank vs. 'god-like' AI

Aug 14,2023 09:20 pm - Monday

Hackers in Vegas take on AI

Aug 11,2023 08:55 pm - Friday

5 questions for Austin Carson