The article argues that recent executive overreach and politicization have severely undermined established norms of U.S. civil-military relations. To restore professional standards, the incoming Congress must actively exercise its oversight powers, moving beyond mere criticism to demanding transparency in defense policy and personnel decisions. Key reforms include enforcing meritocratic promotion processes, requiring documented justification for senior officer removals, and preventing the partisan use of the military. These actions are crucial for bolstering public trust and ensuring the military remains a nonpartisan instrument of civilian control.
Empires of AI
English Summary
The article argues that the United States and China are establishing new AI-based empires by controlling the foundational elements of advanced cognition—namely chips, data, and compute power. This power structure is inherently imperial, creating scarcity around critical inputs (minerals, energy, and compute) and establishing a center-periphery dynamic where raw resources are extracted globally for processing in the metropoles. The geopolitical contest is thus less about achieving Artificial General Intelligence first, and more about which power can sustain the massive capital and energy required to 'bankroll' the race. Ultimately, control over the AI stack will determine who sets the global operating system and dictates the terms of future scientific and economic progress.
中文摘要
本文論述美中兩國正透過控制先進認知運行的基礎要素——即晶片、數據和計算能力——建立基於人工智慧的帝國。這種權力結構本質上是帝國主義的，它在關鍵輸入（如礦物、能源和計算能力）周邊製造稀缺性，並建立了一種中心-周邊的動態：即全球的原始資源被提取出來，供大都會中心進行處理。因此，地緣政治的競爭焦點，已不再是誰能率先實現通用人工智慧（AGI），而是誰能夠維持為這場競賽提供巨大資本和能源支持的能力。最終而言，對AI技術棧的控制權，將決定誰能設定全球的運營系統，並主導未來科學和經濟發展的規則。
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