How Silicon Valley is helping the Pentagon in the AI arms race

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For eight years, a docile fleet of bright orange, unmanned sailboats bobbed around the Bering Sea near Alaska, counting pollock and feeding data to the US government’s oceanic exploration agency. Amassing an unrivalled database of ocean maps which could then be analysed by machine learning programmes, the autonomous vessels made by Saildrone, a start-up founded in 2013 by young British engineer Richard Jenkins, made significant contributions to scientific research on climate change. But as geopolitical tensions between the US and China increased, Saildrone landed a much bigger fish, one with a fresh sense of urgency and a significant budget: the...