Report: Google Will Meet with Top U.S. General to Discuss China

Google is reportedly set to meet with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford, next week to discuss Google’s work with China in the development of artificial intelligence.

According to Bloomberg, Dunford is “tentatively scheduled” to “meet next week with a senior Google official in Washington, at Google’s request.”

This month, Dunford claimed Google “indirectly benefits the Chinese military,” and the General reportedly plans to question Google over the matter.

“In my judgment, us assisting the Chinese military in advancing technology is not in U.S. national interests,” Dunford proclaimed. “So it’s a debate we have to have.”

In 2017, it was announced that Google was launching an artificial intelligence research center in China, and until recently, the Big Tech company was working on a censored Chinese search app codenamed Project Dragonfly.

In December, a Google software engineer also claimed that Google blacklisted Chinese dissidents in an effort to please the Chinese government.

Lt. Gen. John N.T. Shanahan, the director of the Pentagon’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, warned this month that America “can’t afford to lose any more ground” to China on A.I. technology.

“I’m very proud of some areas where the United States continues to lead globally in AI such as our people, our academic institutions, and our hardware,” Shanahan declared. “However, we can’t afford to lose any more ground. The pace has to accelerate so that we don’t lose ground to what China is doing… There’s no doubt in my mind what China is doing in terms of levels of their investments so it’s about making sure that we don’t get behind, and we begin not only to catch up but accelerate our level of investments.”