War Department contractor warns China is way ahead, and 'we don't know how they're doing it'

A tech CEO warned that the Chinese government is ahead in key tech fields and that the threat of war is at America's doorstep.

Tyler Saltsman is the CEO of EdgeRunner, an artificial intelligence technology company implementing an offline AI program for the Space Force to help U.S. soldiers make technological leaps in the battlefield.

'A rogue AI agent could take down the grid. It could bring our country to its knees.'

Saltsman spoke exclusively with Return and explained that the new battlefield tools are sorely needed by U.S. military forces, particularly considering the advancements that have been made in China.

"The Department of War has been moving at breakneck speed," Saltsman said about the need to catch up. "China is ahead of us in the AI race."

On top of doing "a lot more" with a lot less, Saltsman revealed the Chinese government has been able to develop its AI to perform in ways that Western allies aren't particularly sure of how it's doing it.

"They're doing things, that we don't know how they're doing it, and they're very good," the CEO said of the communist government. "We need to take that seriously and come together as a nation."

When asked if China is able to take advantage of blatantly spying on its population to feed its AI more information, Saltsman pointed more specifically to the country ignoring copyright infringement.

"China doesn't care about copyright laws," he said. "If you use copyright data while training an AI, litigation could be coming [if you're] in the U.S."

But in China, feeding copyright-protected data through learning-AI models is par for the course, Saltsman went on.

While the contractor believes AI advancements by the enemy pose a great threat, China's ability to control another key sector should raise alarm bells.RELATED: 'They want to spy on you': Military tech CEO explains why AI companies don't want you going offline

China's ability to take Taiwan should be one of the most discussed issues, if not the paramount issue, Saltsman explained.

"If China were to take Taiwan, it's all-out war," he said.

"All that infrastructure and all those chips — and the chips power everything from data centers to missiles to AI — ... that right there is a big problem."

He continued, "That's the biggest threat to the world. If China were to take Taiwan, then all bets are off."

Saltsman also saw the idea of rogue AI agents as a strong possibility of how China could attack its enemies. More narrowly, they could go after power grids.

"A rogue AI agent could take down the grid. It could bring our country to its knees," he warned, which would result in "total chaos."

The entrepreneur cited the CrowdStrike update that crippled airport systems in July 2024. Saltsman said that if something that small could bring the world to its knees for three days, then it is "deeply concerning" what China could be capable of in its pursuit of super intelligence through AI.

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Tyler Saltsman, CEO of EdgeRunner AI. Photo provided by EdgeRunner

Saltsman was also not shy about criticizing domestic AI companies and putting their ethics in direct sunlight. On top of claiming most commercial AI merchants are spying on customers — the main reason they do not offer offline models — Saltsman denounced the development of AI that does not keep humans in the loop.

"My biggest fear with Big Tech is they want to replace humans with [artificial general intelligence]. What does AGI even mean?"

Google defines AGI as "a machine that possesses the ability to understand or learn any intellectual task that a human being can" and "a type of artificial intelligence (AI) that aims to mimic the cognitive abilities of the human brain."

Saltsman, on the other hand, defines AGI as "an AI that can invent new things to solve problems."

An important question to ask these companies, according to Saltsman, is, "Why would AGI make you money if it was an all-intelligent, all-powerful being? It would see humans as a threat."

For these reasons, Saltsman is serious about developing AI that can work in disconnected environments and work only for the user while keeping humans at the forefront.

As he previously said, "We don't want Big Tech having all of this data and having all this control. It needs to be decentralized."

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