China operates a number of party- and state-sponsored talent programs to recruit researchers -- Chinese citizens and non-citizens alike -- to bolster its strategic civilian and military goals. CSET has created a tracker to catalog publicly available information about these programs. This catalog is a work in progress; if you have further information on programs currently not included in it -- or if you spot an error -- please complete the form at http://bit.ly/ChineseTalent

See our original translation of a speech given by Chinese President Xi Jinping in April 2020 at the seventh meeting of the Central Financial and Economic Affairs Commission.

Is there a rift between the U.S. tech sector and the Department of Defense? To better understand this relationship, CSET surveyed U.S. AI industry professionals about their views toward working on DOD-funded AI projects. The authors find that these professionals hold a broad range of opinions about working with DOD. Among the key findings: Most AI professionals are positive or neutral about working on DOD-funded AI projects, and willingness to work with DOD increases for projects with humanitarian applications.

Machine learning may provide cyber attackers with the means to execute more effective and more destructive attacks against industrial control systems. As new ML tools are developed, CSET discusses the ways in which attackers may deploy these tools and the most effective avenues for industrial system defenders to respond.

Half of Silicon Valley’s startups have at least one foreign-born founder, and immigrants are twice as likely as native-born Americans to start new businesses. To understand how immigration shapes AI entrepreneurship in particular in the United States, Huang, Arnold and Zwetsloot analyze the 2019 AI 50, Forbes’s list of the “most promising” U.S.-based AI startups. They find that 66 percent of these startups had at least one immigrant founder. The authors write that policymakers should consider lifting some current immigration restrictions and creating new pathways for entrepreneurs.

See our original translation of a document providing statistics on Chinese technical research and development spending in 2019. The data is broken down by industry and region and shows a significant increase in R&D expenditures in 2019.

China has built a surveillance state that has increasingly incorporated AI-enabled technologies. Their use during the COVID-19 pandemic has softened the image of China’s surveillance system, presenting unique challenges to preventing the spread of such technologies around the globe. This policy brief outlines core actions the United States and its allies can take to combat the spread of surveillance systems that threaten basic human rights.

CSET submitted the following comment to the Department of Homeland Security regarding a fixed time period of admission for nonimmigrant students, exchange visitors and representatives of foreign information media.

The United States has long used export controls to prevent the proliferation of advanced semiconductors and the inputs necessary to produce them. With Beijing building up its own chipmaking industry, the United States has begun tightening restrictions on exports of semiconductor manufacturing equipment to China. This brief provides an overview of U.S. semiconductor export control policies and analyzes the impacts of those policies on U.S.-China trade.

Foretell was CSET's crowd forecasting pilot project focused on technology and security policy. It connected historical and forecast data on near-term events with the big-picture questions that are most relevant to policymakers. In January 2022, Foretell became part of a larger forecasting program to support U.S. government policy decisions called INFER, which is run by the Applied Research Laboratory for Intelligence and Security at the University of Maryland and Cultivate Labs. This issue brief used recent forecast data to illustrate Foretell’s methodology.