The Washington Post

The U.S. Department of State’s “Rewards for Justice” initiative will be offering millions of dollars for tips on hackers threatening U.S. critical infrastructure. The Washington Post turned to Senior Fellow Andrew Lohn for his view. “While hackers can make hundreds of millions of dollars at a time, it is questionable who would turn them in at all,” he noted. “That said, it’s not unheard of for hackers to turn on each other.” 

NPR

On NPR’s Morning Edition, Research Analyst Will Hunt talked about the CHIPS and Science Act, along with U.S. dependency on tech from abroad and its relation to the tensions between China and Taiwan. “The most urgent threat that needs to be addressed with the CHIPS and Science Act funding is the possibility of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan,” Hunt said. “If China were to invade Taiwan tomorrow, the U.S. and the world, really, would lose access to 85% of all leading-edge microprocessors, about two-thirds of more mature microprocessors and also about half of all DRAM chips, which are one of the two major types of memory chips. So those are the chips that go into, basically, all electronics, you know, everything from smartphones to weapons systems to supercomputers.” Hunt described the passing of the CHIPS and Science Act as the “first step,” followed by making sure the United States is building the right semiconductor fabrication facilities within a reasonable timeline, working with allies, and recruiting high-skilled foreign STEM talent. 

New America

In an opinion piece for New America, Research Analyst Luke Koslosky and Shalin Jyotishi advocated for the use of community colleges to expand pathways to increase talent in the U.S. artificial intelligence workforce. “We need community colleges to train workers for both jobs directly in AI and jobs in other occupations that utilize AI skills,” the authors wrote. While community colleges have the potential to train the AI workforce, a CSET report shows few are awarding degrees and certificates in AI technical and non-technical fields. Barriers to expanding their AI offerings include reduced funding and low completion rates. To strengthen community colleges as AI educators, Koslosky and Jyotishi recommended that colleges, states, and systems decide jointly whether to set up AI programs, build strong relationships with national employers, ensure credit and non-credit offerings are stackable so they create professional pathways, and draw from existing college programs’ best practices to improve AI programs. 

Bloomberg

U.S. government restrictions on chip manufacturer Nvidia’s ability to export AI chips to China will curb China’s tech ambitions, according to Bloomberg. The export controls on Nividia were put in place to prevent cutting-edge technology from getting into the hands of China and Russia for military purposes. A CSET report “Silicon Twist,” found that of the 97 individual AI chips identified in Chinese military purchase records, nearly all of them were designed by U.S. companies Nvidia, Xilinx (now AMD), Intel, or Microsemi.

Supply Chain Daily

Supply Chain Daily also discussed the situation involving Nvidia’s exports to China. Research Analyst Karson Elmgren explained how U.S. restrictions on exports can be tricky. “There’s clear tradeoffs. It’s good for U.S. interests for Nvidia to be the leading supplier for important chips for the entire world,” said Elmgren. “It gives the U.S. a lot of leverage to do things like cut off exports when it deems there’s benefits.”

London School of Economics

China’s “Made in China 2025” strategy to increase domestic semiconductor production has struggled to meet its targets and faced scrutiny in the chipmaking industry. The London School of Economics IDEAS China Foresight reached out to Research Fellow Emily Weinstein to find out if China’s semiconductor strategy is working. “Beijing’s push for chip dominance has indeed yielded some success in recent years; however, due to lack of access to critical intangible expertise, China is likely to remain behind the United States and other key allies in this supply chain,” Weinstein wrote. “Beijing’s semiconductor push has clearly proven productive. However, China’s domestic industry still has a long way to go in competing with long-standing globally dominant players.”

ChinAI

ChinAI’s newsletter flagged CSET’s monthly Research Roundup as a good way to catch up on all of our latest achievements, saying it “covers a wide range of impressive work.” One item not to be missed is the Country Activity Tracker, an interactive tool allowing users to explore metrics on countries’ AI ecosystems. 

Spotlight on CSET Experts: Luke Koslosky 

Luke Koslosky is a Research Analyst focused on AI education policy and workforce talent. 

His latest publications Training Tomorrow’s AI Workforce, U.S. AI Workforce Policy Recommendations, and The DOD’s Hidden Artificial Intelligence Workforce. His work has appeared in The Council on Foreign Relations, Defense One, The Hill, and New America.

Interested in speaking with Luke or our other experts? Contact External Affairs Specialist Adrienne Thompson at adrienne.thompson@georgetown.edu.

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