This is the script of my national radio report yesterday on how the
U.S. is losing its lead in technology and science research. As always,
there may have been minor wording variations from this script as I
presented this report live on air.
- - -
Yeah, so for many, many years, the U.S. has been considered to be the
world's technology and science research leader in all sorts of areas
of science -- medicine and computer science broadly are just two --
it's a long, long list. But increasingly observers are seeing signs
that this is changing in a negative way and for a number of reasons,
with potentially dramatic impacts on consumers and businesses.
One obvious issue is that so much tech spending is being poured into
these often awful large language model generative AI systems including
chatbots and the rest. And we're not talking about all AI. There are
many wonderful applications for AI machine learning in scanning
medical test results and storm predictions, and a vast number more.
But that kind of AI often gets confused with generative AI like the
chatbots and the other generative AI applications that Big Tech is
desperately trying to force us to use.
Because it seems that most people really aren't interested in using
that kind of AI and Big Tech has been pouring many billions of dollars
into it, and is desperate to find a way to profit from it.
So it seems like other kinds of important research are often being
left behind because generative AI has so much hype associated with it
that it's sucking up funding that could otherwise be used in research
that could actually help people far more effectively. Much generative
AI has become an excuse for firing your best workers and as automated
cheating machines to drive teachers crazy.
Also we know there have been major cutbacks in a range of U.S.
research efforts like the NSF - National Science Foundation -- and
major university research programs that have long been considered to
be the crown jewels of the U.S.' global science leadership in
everything from medical research like cancer and Alzheimer and other
disease research, to pretty much any other crucial science aspect one
can name.
It's certainly possible to find waste in some studies but when you
suddenly cut funding to NSF by more than 50% there's really no way
you're not going to cut into essential work and sometimes disrupt long
term studies that might have brought real breakthroughs.
And a side effect of this is the brain drain. Other countries are
using this situation to entice some of our best researchers to move
their work to those countries. Then in many cases those countries will
then have the commercial advantage of breakthroughs that otherwise
could have been ours here, and that could mean the loss of billions
and billions of dollars.
And something else just happened maybe for the first time ever that I
can recall offhand. A major tech firm from another country -- in this
case DJI of China -- who makes the drones widely used by law
enforcement, search and rescue and other public safety organizations,
farmers, utilities, consumers -- just introduced a new flagship drone
that could be very useful to those organizations including saving
lives.
But DJI has decided not to market it in the U.S. at this time, and you
really can't blame them. The rest of the world where DJI does business
can get this new drone, but you can't official buy it in the U.S. And
this is apparently due to the lack of stability regarding U.S.
tariffs, and various anti-drone legislation pushed by politicians
here, even though police and those other public safety organizations,
and other groups, keep explaining that they really don't feel that
they have affordable, practical substitutes with similar capabilities
and support, that could replace those DJI drones.
Science and technology matter. And falling behind in these areas,
whether due to funding for generative AI hype starving other projects
of resources, or due to ideological disagreements unrelated to the
actual science research projects themselves, or for any other reasons,
could end up not only costing us financially, but directly impact us
in terms of poorer health and lost lives, as wonderful breakthroughs
that might otherwise have occurred slip away from us. And if we let
that happen, future generations will probably not be looking back
kindly on our behavior, and we couldn't reasonably fault them for
feeling that way.
- - -
L
- - -
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
[email protected] (https://www.vortex.com/lauren)
Lauren's Blog: https://lauren.vortex.com
Mastodon: https://mastodon.laurenweinstein.org/@lauren
Signal: By request on need to know basis
Founder: Network Neutrality Squad: https://www.nnsquad.org
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Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility
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