The Russians weren’t supposed to have atomic weapons. Not yet. Not in 1949. But there was no denying (President Harry S. Truman did try) that the seismic data the American military collected looked identical to the kind of seismic activity caused by an underground nuclear test. (READ MORE: The World, Israel, and Our Diplomacy of Dunces) The whole situation left Truman and his advisers in a tough spot. The American people had to know, and if the government didn’t say something, the information would inevitably leak and cause widespread panic. Of course, there was always the possibility that even coming from the government, the information would be met with some panic. The world, after all, was just coming to terms with the fact that it was capable of self-destruction. So Truman downplayed it. “[T]he eventual development of this new force by other nations was to be expected,” he asserted. After all, the scientific theories and processes needed to create an atomic weapon were “widely known,” and no one wanted to live in a world where atomic power was monopolized by a single superpower. Truman was right. It was inevitable that Russia would develop its own atomic weapons in time. Russian physicists had been trying to replicate nuclear fission experiments back in 1939, long before any kind of atomic weapon existed. If Germany hadn’t invaded in 1941, it’s possible that Soviet scientists would have figured it out before the Manhattan Project did. As it was, Russia had limited resources for research and development during the war and allocated just 20 physicists to the project. (READ MORE: Staggering Debt and Foreign Threats) In 1945, the Manhattan Project tested its first successful nuclear weapon. The Soviets knew about it — even before Truman spilled the beans at the Potsdam Conference to Josef Stalin, who pretended like he didn’t care. But Stalin did care. Back in Moscow, he had already started pouring money, scientists, and resources into the project. Potsdam ended on Aug. 2, 1945. Just four days later, the U.S. dropped its first atomic weapon on Japan. If Stalin had had any misgivings about the calls he had just made to his top scientists, he didn’t anymore. Back in the United States, American politicians knew that Russia would develop nuclear weapons. It was the obvious next step. The only question was when, and the predictions were all over the map. Gen. Leslie Groves, banking on exclusive U.S. and UK contracts with global uranium suppliers, gave the Russians a generous 20 years to figure it out. Manhattan Project scientists, on the other hand, were sure it wouldn’t take nearly that long. (READ MORE: Supporting the Hamas Fantasy of Israel’s Destruction) All that to say, Truman hardly expected seismic recordings on Sept. 3, 1949, to reveal what they did: that the U.S. no longer had a monopoly on mass destruction. From that point on, the Cold War didn’t just threaten delicately achieved global peace; now a war would look like mass atomic destruction on all sides. And nobody was willing to pull the trigger on that. This article originally appeared on Aubrey’s Substack, Pilgrim’s Way on Sept. 23, 2024. The post No Monopoly on Mass Destruction appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

In the race to AI supremacy, few things are as important as having access to advanced computer chips. The United States and China are currently vying for the top spot, so it makes sense to implement rules to prevent China from obtaining these chips. Importantly, these rules must be robust enough to prevent loopholes. With unfettered access to cloud resources from Big Tech companies like Google and Amazon, the Chinese government and the companies under its control can access America’s advanced AI technology despite rules aimed at preventing them from doing so. The AI cloud loophole must be closed immediately. China is banned under U.S. export controls from buying Nvidia’s most advanced AI chips, but not from renting them from cloud computing companies like Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. The Commerce Department designates cloud computing as a service rather than a product, so export rules imposed by the Biden administration on product shipments to China fail to account for this glaring vulnerability. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo vocalized her concerns around this vulnerability back in January, around the same time a proposed rule was released from the Commerce Department focused on requiring providers of cloud services to identify and track foreign customers in order to “deter” malicious cyber activities. Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, who chairs the U.S. House of Representatives’s Foreign Affairs Committee, has reiterated the concern in Washington around this “loophole” and says, “[W]e are long overdue to address it.” This week, legislation sponsored by Rep. Michael Lawler of New York aimed at ending this loophole passed the House with bipartisan support, but so far it has not gained much traction in the Senate. A spokesperson said that the Commerce Department is “seeking additional resources to strengthen our existing controls that restrict PRC companies from accessing advanced AI chips through remote access to cloud computing capability.” Big Tech is more than happy to accommodate these requests from the Chinese if there is a profit to be made. The founder of a Shenzhen-based AI startup was easily offered access to Nvidia chips in overseas servers from both Google and Microsoft. Google seems to think that these business dealings are permitted under U.S. export controls, as no data centers reside within China proper. AWS ranks sixth in cloud providers for the Chinese market. Through an intermediary, Shenzhen University was able to use AWS and get access to Nvidia’s chips for an “unspecified project.” Amazon claims it “complies with all applicable U.S. laws, including trade laws, regarding the provision of AWS services inside and outside of China.” Multiple other organizations linked to the Chinese government were discovered actively seeking access to these chips through cloud services. When Nvidia modified its advanced chips in order to sell them in China, the Biden administration released new rules that would halt these sales. Through the AI cloud loophole, China is still able to maintain its unauthorized access. China is aware of the United States’ ability to cut off this access, but until the right steps are taken to materialize these threats, America’s greatest adversary will continue to mooch off American technology. Access to these chips is vital for continued growth of Chinese AI capabilities. At one point before the initial restrictions were put in place on China, Nvidia accounted for 95 percent of the nation’s chip sales. Part of the dominance is explained by the performance of the chips. Another reason is the CUDA software that they run on. This software helps create parallelized software which is key in AI development. The United States and China are locked in a heated battle for AI supremacy that will greatly impact the future global order. The current restrictions on advanced chip shipments to China that do not account for access to cloud services with those same chips are failing to meet the seriousness of this issue. To close this loophole, legislation such as the Remote Access Security Act should be passed by the Senate, and Commerce Department rulings should be updated to prohibit backdoor Chinese access to these chips. It is time to close the AI cloud loophole. Caleb Larson is a cybersecurity researcher, policy analyst with the Internet Accountability Project, Heritage Foundation alum, and contributor at The Federalist, where he writes about cybersecurity-related issues facing the United States. The post Close the AI Cloud Loophole appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

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