--- title: "Pentagon Tech Chief Quits in Frustration, Says US Has No “Fighting Chance” Against China" description: "In an interview with the Financial Times, the Pentagon's former chief software officer said that he resigned in protest of slow innovation in the US." date: "2021-10-11" modified: "2021-10-11" authors: - name: "Jon Christian" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/pentagon-tech-chief-quits-china" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "china" - "nicolas chaillan" - "Pentagon" - "the digest" --- # Pentagon Tech Chief Quits in Frustration, Says US Has No “Fighting Chance” Against China ![In an interview with the Financial Times, the Pentagon's former chief software officer said that he resigned in protest of slow innovation in the US.]() *China flag blowing in the wind. \Image: Getty Images\* ## Bridge Burner In a [blistering new interview]() with the *Financial Times*, the Pentagon's former chief software officer said that he resigned in protest of slow technological innovation in the United States — and, in a provocative twist, opined that China is dominating in the space, particularly at developing advanced artificial intelligence. "We have no competing fighting chance against China in 15 to 20 years," Nicolas Chaillan, who quit the Defense Department in September, told the newspaper in his first interview since leaving the post. "Right now, it’s already a done deal; it is already over in my opinion." ## Kindergarten Level Chaillan's complaints are numerous. He blasted cybersecurity in some parts of the US government as "kindergarten level," decried lack of cooperation between the US military and its tech sector, and said that he had wasted his time "fixing basic cloud things and laptops." Most of all, though, he seems furious that China is pulling ahead in the realms of artificial intelligence, machine learning and cyberattack capability. In a particularly grim critique, he complained that US tech giants like Google have been hesitant to dive into particularly controversial AI research, whereas Beijing isn't held back by those pesky ethical debates. ## World War AI Though the *Financial Times* didn't mention it, [*Reuters*' coverage]() of Chaillan's interview also drew attention to US intelligence assessments that China is poised to dominate in synthetic biology and genetics as well — a detail which likely reflects fear of another world superpower starting to remake agriculture, the natural environment, and maybe even [human beings themselves](). "Whether it takes a war or not is kind of anecdotal," he said. This probably isn't the last we're going to hear from Chaillan, who told the *Financial Times* that he plans to testify to Congress in coming weeks. **READ MORE:** [US has already lost AI fight to China, says ex-Pentagon software chief]() \[*The Financial Times*\] ***More on China:*** [*China Built an AI to Detect Corruption and Officials Shut it Down*]() ## Author I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()