HOW THE U.S. FUNDED CHINA'S AI AMBITIONS

THE U.S. AWARDED AT LEAST $30 MILLION IN GRANTS FOR RESEARCH BY A TOP AI SCIENTIST-WHO RETURNED HOME TO HELP CHINA WIN IN A FIELD WITH VAST MILITARY IMPLICATIONS

- Didi Kirsten Tatlow

THE U.S. GOVERNMENT GAVE AT LEAST $30 million in federal grants for research led by a scientist who is now working for Beijing. Song-Chun Zhu is at the forefront of China's race to develop the most advanced artificial intelligence research that he compared to the development of the atomic bomb in terms of military importance.

Pentagon funding for Zhu, the former director of a pioneering AI center at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), continued even as he set up a parallel institute near Wuhan, took a position at a Beijing university whose primary goal is to support Chinese military research and joined a Chinese Communist Party "talent plan" whose members are tasked with transferring knowledge and technology to China.

Newsweek's reporting underlines how the United States, with its open academic environment, has not only been a source for China of advanced technology with military applications but has also actively collaborated with and funded scientists from its rival. Only as tensions with China have grown over everything from global flashpoints to trade to technology, has the research started coming under growing scrutiny.

Responding to Newsweek's questions over funding for Zhu, the Department of Defense says there were also advantages to international collaboration: not least being able to recruit top minds from around the globe, including China, to the United States. The statement adds, "For all of our R&D programs, the Department has policies, including comprehensive disclosure requirements, that address research security challenges and conflicts of interest."

The National Science Foundation, a federal agency that was among those that awarded millions of dollars in grants to Zhu, began to use new analytic tools to fully determine potential conflicts of interest in 2022.