“China Has Already Beaten US To Be AI Superpower.” My Ass.

Someone sent me this clickbait article yesterday and it sparked a level of rage that I typically reserve for my family, friends and executive team. The statement is utter B.S. But, the risk of it becoming reality is real if the US doesn’t get its act together fast.

As the Chairman of DataRobot, the Exec Chairman / CEO of AtScale, and an investor/advisor to a dozen AI/? Data / Cyber companies, I have a ringside seat to the innovation, passion, and capability that makes the United States a true technology?superpower. Our free markets, our education system, our entrepreneurial culture, and our people (whether born here or not) are what makes the US the center of mass for global technology innovation. Our relationships with democracies across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia bring innovation and access to talent globally. Closed economies like China cannot [fairly] compete. There is absolutely no reason for the US to lose out on innovation.

Except...

...Except if we continue screwing things up like we have been. Nicolas Chaillan’s goodbye note to the DoD laid out some of the clear areas where we systematically are screwing up in leveraging our national AI/Data/Cyber assets from the private sector to ensure ultra-efficient, ultra modern defense capability. If we don’t actively evolve our approach to integrating private sector thinking and capability, we won’t keep up. There are some phenomenal examples of how it can be done right - check out Col. Molly Solsbury and the Scarlet Dragon program. We need more.

This dilemma is not just for our military leaders to deal with. Our nation is in the enviable position to “crowd-source” solutions to this challenge. Remember that experts built the Titanic and amateurs built the Ark. I call on CEOs, CTOs, engineers, developers, data scientists, data architects - even technology sales pros - to think about how they can engage with our great military to build a stronger, more agile national defense. No matter your politics, we need to think like the citizen-patriots who originally built this place. We can and must do better.