The Moon, Artificial Intelligence, & U.S.-China Relations
China’s ongoing mission to collect rocks and soil from the far side of the Moon marks another milestone in the country’s space exploration despite its exclusion from U.S. space projects.? This accomplishment should make U.S. policymakers ponder whether adopting a similar exclusionary approach will help or hurt the United States’s efforts to secure the lead in the U.S.-China AI race.? More importantly, the potential catastrophic consequences of AI manipulation demand a better approach that focuses on generating benefits at a global level, rather than devolving into a simple win-lose race between two international powers.
China’s Exploration of the Moon
In early May, China launched the Chang’e-6 lunar probe to undertake an unprecedented mission: China is seeking to be the first country in human history to bring back samples from the four-billion-year-old South Pole-Aitken Basin located on the far side of the Moon.?
Chang’e-6’s mission is part of China’s ambitious space program.? Four years ago, the Chang’e-5, another lunar probe in a series named after the Chinese Moon goddess, Chang’e, collected two-billion-year-old lunar samples.? This success made China the third country in the world to collect lunar samples—after the United States and the Soviet Union, which brought back three-billion-year-old samples decades ago.? The samples from the Chang’e-5 help scientists inside and outside China develop new insight into the Moon’s evolution because, according to a U.S. scientist who has reviewed the samples, these lunar rocks “represent a window into a very different era of lunar magmatism”.
To support future lunar research and exploration, China recently published the world’s first high-definition lunar geologic atlas, which, one scientist explains, “is of great significance for studying the evolution of the [M]oon, selecting the site for a future lunar research station, and utilizing lunar resources. ?It can also help us better understand the Earth and other planets in the solar system, such as Mars”.? The atlas promises to be extremely useful to China, as the country has already planned to organize two missions to the south pole of the Moon by 2028 and a mission to Mars within the next decade.
Excluding China or the United States?
How China has managed to accomplish these feats is quite a mystery.? What is clear, however, is that the exclusion of China from the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (“NASA”)’s projects has not stopped China from reaching milestones in its own space exploration.
The United States began excluding China from U.S. space projects in 2011, when Congress passed a law banning NASA from using government funds to “participate, collaborate, or coordinate bilaterally in any way with China or any Chinese-owned company unless such activities are specifically authorized by a law enacted after the date of [this law]”.? This prohibition is reflected in NASA’s “Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences” announcement, which generally welcomes proposals submitted by “organizations of every type, domestic and foreign, Government and private, for-profit, and not-for-profit”, “without restriction on teaming arrangements, other than with China”.
It is worth noting that the U.S. exclusion meant to weaken China’s space-related technological advancement seems to have backfired, in the sense that U.S. scientists are not able to seek valuable research opportunities presented by Chinese space missions.? For example, apart from its own mission, the Chang’e-6 also carries Moon-studying payloads supported by France, Italy, and Sweden to facilitate these countries’ research.
The U.S.-China AI Race & the Exclusionary Approach
The tremendous potential of AI models has triggered rapid development of these models and related competition among countries. ?The competition between the United States and China is particularly fierce, to the extent that U.S. lawmakers are reportedly planning to impose various restrictions to prevent China from having access to U.S. AI models and talent in this field. ?
China’s ability to clear the United States’s seemingly insurmountable hurdle to continue its space journey should prompt one to question whether these AI-related restrictions would really hinder China’s development in the AI space.?
The U.S. restrictions are unlikely to be effective for two other reasons.? […]
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