After watchdog slams understaffing, AI to vet Pentagon-backed professors’ China ties

After a federal watchdog found a staff of two overseers insufficient to vet 27,000 research awards for ties to adversaries, namely China, the Pentagon says computers will now screen military-funded academics, including artificial intelligence experts.

The move has stakeholders urging not to lean too hard on algorithms to distinguish, for instance, a scientist-spy sharing secret nano-energy plans with China from a Chinese professor publishing AI safety studies. Hanging in the balance lies troops’ technological edge, veteran intelligence officials and academics say.

AI’s confusion over the timing and nature of research partnerships may obscure real espionage if humans are not the ultimate judge of foreign influence, they warn, with some academics fearing an AI-work slop redux of the “China Initiative,” where the first Trump administration charged dozens of ethnic Chinese scientists with espionage, only to drop nearly all charges.

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