The U.S. has ceded dominance in computer technology to China

This week’s damage report: Every year at the Super Computing conference they unveil a list of the top 500 most powerful supercomputers in the world. The U.S. has historically always dominated this list in terms of occupying the top slots and the total number of systems on the list. This year China has officially assumed leadership of the world’s supercomputer capabilities – having both the top two fastest supercomputers in the world, as well as the largest total number of entries in the top 500. But it gets much worse….

China has publicly stated their goal of dominating the emerging computer fields of artificial intelligence and quantum computing, and they are investing the money to make this happen. There is double digit growth in research and development spending from the government and private venture capitalists in China.

The response from the U.S. government? The proposed science and technology research funding is being cut significantly. The money is essentially being transferred to increased weapons spending at the Department of Defense. In addition, the current tax bill will significantly increase the taxes on graduate students, making it financially impossible for most of them to pursue graduate degrees. This will significantly dry up the pipeline of graduates with advanced degrees in science and technology, along with ending most of the research work they’re doing while working on their degrees. This will have major long term effects.

The combined result of ceding dominance in computer technology to China, while drying up the flow of U.S. graduates in science and technology, will have seriously damaging consequences for the U.S. for many decades to come. I know this is flying under the radar compared to the intense discussions of the dating behavior of Senate candidates, but this is near and dear to both my profession and my passions, and it has REALLY BIG long term consequences for America. What can be done about this?

The only positive argument made this week is that the current U.S. government is so dysfunctional, it’s not clear when or if any of the above changes will actually get passed into law. If the tax and budget bills fail, they may once again, as in previous years, be forced to pass a continuing resolution. That means the budget will stay the same next year as it is this year, for now. It’s a shame that this is the best we can hope for from the current government leadership in Washington. And while it’s tempting (and emotionally satisfying) to blame this all on our leaders, this is exactly what many people in America elected them to do.