China's Military A.I. Advantages Are Becoming Clear in 2023

China could achieve Naval military supremacy by 2028. Now A.I. is helping achieve its goals.

An aerial view of Whitsun Reef, Spratly Islands, South China Sea imaged 24 March 2021. Gallo Images/Orbital Horizon/Copernicus Sentinel Data 2021)

Welcome Back,

I just got back from my Visa trip to Singapore.

I have a new announcement to make. Once A.I. Supremacy (archives) reaches 15,000 readers, I’m going to start a Substack Chat in my Newsletter (in-app and on the web).

This will enable more discussions and paid users to start their own discussions as well. So that’s coming in April most likely, and in March we’ve (the polite form of I) built a Reddit to give A.I. enthusiasts a place to discover A.I. articles and news from around the web.

I keep returning to the topic of China’s A.I. capabilities. There was some news that popped up about a week ago with potential military implications. I actually think the news will give China a huge edge in designing vehicles in space, many decades from now.

I have a special interest in A.I. as applied to national security and defense and the future of military ops. So if you do as well, this article might be informative.

The reality is China’s investment in Surveillance Capitalism at the service of the State is a huge advantage to China’s A.I. development. China’s utilitarian approach to A.I. means more military applications and less advertising applications which is what the U.S. skews towards.

China’s approach to facial recognition and drone technology is much more ubiquitous, and makes other countries being able to follow it nearly impossible. The U.S. is now in a position trying to play catch-up.

Over the next decade, the artificial intelligence market in China will provide a $600 billion opportunity, according to McKinsey analysis.

How China Leverages A.I. in Military Engineering

In June, 2022 there was a story about an automated ship. According to an article published in Business Insider, China launched the world’s first seaborne drone carrier capable of functioning on its own last week. More than 50 autonomous airborne, surface, and subsurface vehicles will be carried, launched, recovered, and coordinated by the 290-foot ship. I was following this all in real-time on SCMP and other more Asia focused publications.

Now in 2023, something new in this vein has occurred.

China plans to have more than 400 warships by 2025, which would be about a third more than the US fleet.