Ai and Politics

 AI and Politics: How Will We Know What—and Who—Is Real?

By The Walrus, May 1, 2023

Illustration depicts a person looking through binoculars; through one lens is another person, through the other is a digital representation of a person.

The gradual introduction of AI-manipulated video and audio in everyday discourse might acclimatize people to it, but not if a large number of people are required to assess the authenticity of a video or audio clip.

To paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, in a democracy, being informed grants people agency and having agency gives us a voice. Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to challenge both of these critical assumptions embedded for hundreds of years at the heart of our understanding of democracy. What happens when the loudest, or most influential, voice in politics is one created by a computer? And what happens when that computer-made voice also looks and sounds like a human?

If we are lucky, AI-generated or AI-manipulated audio and video will cause only brief moments of isolated confusion in our political sphere. If we are not, there is a risk it could permanently upend politics—and society.

From The Walrus

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Japan Geopolitics, Satellites

 Rand looks at their changing defence structure,   Implications in the region.  

Japan's Long-Awaited Return to Geopolitics

COMMENTARY  (Foreign Policy)

Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida receives salutes from Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force soldiers at Sagami Bay, south of Tokyo, Japan, November 6, 2022, photo by Issei Kato/Reuters

Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida receives salutes from Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force soldiers at Sagami Bay, south of Tokyo, Japan, November 6, 2022

Photo by Issei Kato/Reuters, by Jeffrey W. Hornung,February 6, 2023

In geopolitics, rarely do we realize that a tectonic shift is taking place the moment it is happening. There are a few exceptions: the Soviet Union's launch of the world's first space satellite, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the 9/11 attacks. These moments were historical inflection points that were plain for all to see.

Russia's war in Ukraine, which marks the return of naked, World War II–style aggression to Europe, is surely another such inflection point. But there is a second, less-noticed shift taking place right now that has at least as much power to alter history: the return of Japan as a major geopolitical actor. In the span of only one month from mid-December 2022 to mid-January of this year, Japan revised large parts of its post-1945 security posture and replaced it with a new strategy that—if implemented—would create a more robust and forward-leaning Japan. Tokyo's policy shifts may signal a Japan that is not only more willing and capable of involving itself in geopolitical issues beyond its own narrow, defensive interests but also more likely to act in ways commensurate with its strategic position, regional interests, and economic might.

At the close of 2022, the administration of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida released three new strategic documents: a new National Security Strategy (PDF), National Defense Strategy (PDF), and Defense Buildup Plan (PDF). Then, in January, he and his foreign and defense ministers traveled to Washington to meet their U.S. counterparts. There, Japan's new strategic thinking was on full display in joint statements with U.S. President Joe Biden as well as Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Among other changes, Tokyo has announced the intention to increase defense spending by nearly 60 percent over five years, abandoning an informal budget cap of 1 percent of GDP that was put in place for political purposes back in the 1970s. This alone represents an almost revolutionary departure from longstanding defense practices.…

The remainder of this commentary is available at foreignpolicy.com.  .... ' 

Jeffrey W. Hornung is a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation and an adjunct professor in the Asian Studies Program at Georgetown University.   ... '

Geopolitics of AI

Continuing to see more AI development from China. This AcAm article provides a non technical article.

The Geopolitics of Artificial Intelligence
As the U.S. and China vie for global influence, AI will be central to the balance of power
By Abishur Prakash on July 11, 2019

Something stood out of the ordinary during a speech by China’s president, Xi Jinping, in January 2018. Behind Xi, on a bookshelf, were two books on artificial intelligence (AI). Why were those books there? Similar to 2015, when Russia “accidentally” aired designs for a new weapon, the placement of the books may not have been an accident. Was China sending a message?

If it was, perhaps, it was this: For decades, China has been operating in an Americanized-world. To escape, China is turning to AI.

 Implications of China's AI

By 2030, China wants to be the world’s leading AI power, with an AI industry valued at $150 billion. How does China plan to achieve this?

Take health care. Ping An, a large Chinese conglomerate, has unveiled AI doctors. It has launched clinics known as “One-Minute Clinic,” where AI doctors diagnose symptoms and propose medications. Within three years, Ping An plans to build hundreds of thousands of these clinics across China.

Could China export 10,000 AI doctors to Russia? Such a move would transform geopolitics.

The biggest impact is that it would shift the China-Russia relationship, from energy and currency, areas that the U.S. can influence, to Chinese AI, over which the U.S. has no control. The AI doctors may make Russian society more China-centric, and future generations in Russia may be more familiar with Ping An than with IBM or Intel.

There are other geopolitical implications too.  .... "