Hi, I'm Dan Premack and welcome to Axios Recap, sponsored by Amazon.

Today's Thursday, March 4th.

New COVID infections in Texas are up.

Tech stocks keep going down and we're focused on artificially intelligent war zones.

Earlier this week, a tech entrepreneur named Brandon Seng wrote a sobering analysis of America's

defense capabilities in an op-ed for the Aspen Institute.

In short, he said we had fallen behind on artificial intelligence R&D, and in so doing, put

our military and national security at risk.

For example, he wrote that military drones dependent on GPS will soon become, quote,

cannon fodder for adversaries with advanced electronic warfare capabilities.

Now, to be sure, Seng is not the first technologist to sound the alarm about America falling behind

on AI.

For example, a committee chaired by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt just days ago sent a report

to Congress about how America's AI lead over China has been quickly shrinking and that the

consequences of being leapfrogged may be dire.

Seng, though, is not an uninterested observer.

For example, he was a Navy SEAL who served in Afghanistan.

Second, and even more relevant, he and his brother co-founded a startup called Shield AI,

which basically makes smarter military and surveillance drone software.

So, yeah, Seng is talking his book a bit, but that

doesn't mean he's wrong. So in 15 seconds, we want to talk tech, policy, and ethics with

Brandon Seng. But first, this. So, Brandon, let's just start big picture here.

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