Day: August 28, 2023

Today’s Pentagon Announcement to Deploy Thousands of Drones and AI Robotic Warfare Platforms Against China Within Two Years

We begin with the announcement today by the Pentagon of an ambitious new program to build and deploy within two years, thousands of drones and robotic warfare platforms operating on AI that will counter China’s defenses along its coast and in the case of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, reduce the massive losses the U.S. would suffer in the air and at sea. Joining us to discuss the emergence of the Digital Military Industrial Complex is Dan Grazier, a former Marine Corps captain who served tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan during the War on Terror. Previously, he worked as a television journalist in Maryland and Missouri and he has written extensively and lectured on matters of military reform. He is the Senior Defense Policy Fellow at the Project on Government Oversight.

The Emerging Digital Military Industrial Complex as Silicon Valley Meets the Pentagon

Then we look further into the Digital Military Industrial Complex as Silicon Valley meets the Pentagon and Tech billionaires like Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and Marc Andreessen make billions out of new tech startups with contracts to manufacture and deploy thousands of robotic weapons operating on AI. Joining us is Eugene Gholz, a professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame. His work focuses on the intersection of national security and economic policy, on subjects including innovation, defense management, and U.S. grand strategy. From 2010-2012, he served in the Pentagon as Senior Advisor to the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manufacturing and Industrial Base Policy, and he is the coauthor of two books: Buying Military Transformation: Technological Innovation and The Defense Industry, and U.S. Defense Politics: The Origins of Security Policy.

The Pope Criticizes American Bishops for “A Very Strong, Organized, Reactionary Attitude” as “Ideologies Replace Faith”

Then finally we look into the remarks by Pope Francis that conservative U.S. Catholics have replaced faith with ideology, saying there is a “very strong, organized, reactionary attitude in the U.S. church.” Joining us is Frances Kissling, the president of the Center for Health, Ethics and Social Policy. She teaches at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, serves on the board of the Journal of Feminist Ethics and was the President of Catholics for Choice for 25 years, stepping down in 2007 when she became a Radcliffe fellow at Harvard.