Opening remarks at the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence Conference
Transcript
Thank you, thank you thank you thank you. Ellie, thank you very much and to all of you for being here today. I just want to say a quick thanks to Representative Stefanik her work and what she’s been doing and involved with. I mean, she does have passion so, and it was obvious, as you got to see her not only perform here, but in word and deed as she makes A.I. this nexus with national security as we see here today very well represented by the men and women in uniform and thank you all for the work that you all are doing. It’s a true honor for me to get to address all of you at the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence Conference and on the future of A.I. and national security and I think today’s theme is strength through innovation and that’s exactly as it should be. You know, innovation is the lifeblood of this country. It’s a vital source for our security. For nearly three years, I’ve had an incredible privilege to lead one of the world’s greatest incubators of innovation, obviously the Department of Energy, DOE’s unmatched research and development infrastructure, including our 17 national labs. They have left an indelible impact on our world and their story, it really began more than seven decades ago with the Manhattan Project, the Atomic Energy Commission, pursuing one of the greatest national security missions of all time. Thanks to that mission, our nation harnessed the power of the atom. They changed the course of history, secured freedom’s future for a lot of generations to come. Now I want us to pursue, for a moment, and I want us to pause for a moment as well and imagine how different, how different the world would be today if America had failed to lead at that very pivotal time. Imagine if our adversaries of that time had harnessed that power first, the results would have been catastrophic. Paraphrasing Winston Churchill, the whole world would have sunk into the abyss of a new dark age. Today America faces a similar moment with innovation once again, ready to tip the scales as we spoke outside. We are engaged in an epic race for A.I. supremacy with rival nations holding rival notions about freedom. If we fail to win this race, Churchill’s words of warning could well become a reality. As I speak, China and Russia are striving to overtake us and as everyone knows, neither of these nations shares our values or our freedoms. Both of these nations are crushing liberty at home with China building an A.I. surveillance state capable of monitoring every move its citizens make. Both are using their power to undermine the sovereignty and security of other nations. Imagine what they could do. Imagine what they would do if they win the race. President Trump recognizes this and has affirmed, both by word and deed that America must win. From unleashing federal dollars and promoting R and D investment, to removing barriers to A.I. innovation, from empowering American workers with A.I. focused education and training at home, to supporting America’s A.I. efforts overseas, the president’s artificial intelligence initiative calls on every federal agency to help America prevail and at every point, it depends on institutions sharing their unique capabilities with each other to achieve this goal. At DOE, we’ve answered the call. Our computing capabilities and our deep expertise are second to none. DOE houses the world’s two most powerful computers and four of the 10 fastest computers in the world and we will soon deploy three, next generation, exo-scale machines that will be up to 30 times faster than the fastest machine that we have today, combining these incredible machines and expertise with A.I. Becomes abundantly clear what DOE has to offer. That’s why I believe DOE is approaching the epicenter of what I call the golden age of artificial intelligence. DOE is working on hundreds of projects, often with others to develop, deliver, deploy as early as this year. I directed the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board, which is a group of extraordinary men and women who assist us at the agency of looking up and over the hill, giving us advice and I asked them to form a working group on A.I. issues and this September I established the Artificial Intelligence and Technology office, AITO, first of its kind. Smith, you and I were discussing earlier having that central place in government where all of us can go and not have to think, “Well, is it DOE that’s doing this? “Is it over at DARPA? “Is it over at,” knowing that there is a central focus on artificial intelligence, I think, was very important for this country and no better place, I think, to do that than DOE, obviously partnering with all these other agencies of government and these institutions that are partners in the private sector and our university settings. It will expand key partnerships with government, with the private sector, with the academic institutions and with our allies abroad. We were just in Israel working down in the Negev Desert there with some of their cyber security experts this last year who will be obviously very important partners as we go forward. A.I. is going to enhance our national security and I might add, that includes our nuclear security. So our National Nuclear Security Administration is using A.I., using that super computing capacity to simulate next-generation weapons design, support science-based stockpile stewardship without any nuclear testing. It also includes intelligence gathering as DOE is one of the 17 federal agencies comprising America’s intelligence community. So NNSA is using A.I. to monitor our adversary’s nuclear testing and proliferation activities and since we can’t have national security without energy security, it includes security America’s energy infrastructure and so we’re using this powerful tool to protect the grid against cyber attacks, against physical attacks and thanks to the president, we have now, a very focused mission, to win the A.I. race against freedom’s foes while strengthening our capabilities against those foes every step of the way. And just as the Manhattan Project led to a nuclear triad of land and sea and air, securing our nation for decades when they did that, so will today’s strategic force be creating a technology triad of exo-scale, A.I. and quantum, empowering us for generations to come and it’s only through this remarkable new triad that we are on the cusp of something momentous, something that would have been impossible without it. We are about to diagnose, treat and prevent traumatic brain injury, in all of its aspects. Some of you may have seen, as late as this morning on one of the major channels a story that’s proliferating about how young women in soccer and the concussions that are occurring and that traumatic brain injury that’s occurring there is every bit as prevalent in that arena as it is in football. I mean, the breadth of this, of what we’re going to be dealing with on concussions, traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress, the opioid epidemic that’s come from that, the suicides, the power of impacting people’s lives of which you are now very engaged in is an extraordinary story. This is about making a better world. This is about someone pointing to something and saying, “They really changed the world.” And that’s what we have within our grasp if we prevail. I see an end to energy poverty as we deliver more energy to more people across the globe than ever before. I see us revolutionizing transportation, building smarter cities. I see people living, not dying as we forecast earthquakes and other natural disasters more precisely than every before. I see children no longer malnourished as we boost crop yields to incredible levels. As I mentioned, I see us ending the opioid epidemic. I see us finding cures for intractable diseases. Our adversaries seek to subjugate, but we will liberate. They seek to exploit, but we will empower. They seek to dominate, but we will serve. I believe that we, a free and innovative people who split the atom, we walked the moon, we brought tyrants to justice. We’ll rise to this challenge and as we do, I believe if we stay true to freedom, he who gave us our freedom will light our way. For the sake of this generation and generations to come, let us run the race, fight the good fight and win. God bless you for your efforts. God bless your work on this commission, and may God bless our great nation and its freedoms. Thank you.