[oldstrangers]

I've always wondered if the US Government's AI research is as advanced as their general technological lead (usually 10-15 years ahead of consumer tech). If so, it would mean OpenAI has more to gain with such a partnership than the other way around. And maybe this sort of oversight is a kind of de facto requirement when approaching AGI.

[AlotOfReading]

The US government doesn't have a general technological lead. There are a only few specific areas where they have leads by virtue of funding/doing most of the research, like cryptography, sensors, explosives and such. Most of these areas are relatively narrow too. The government is usually buying special versions of readily available commercial products. Any F500 company could buy things just as powerful.

[oldstrangers]

Do you think there's more exascale supercomputers on Earth than are publicly acknowledged?

[notatoad]

In what fields is the government 10-15 years ahead of consumer tech? That seems like a totally absurd claim.

Technology moves a very long way in 15 years. The only markets this might be true is for specialized military equipment where there is no consumer market other than aftermarket military goods.

[snakeyjake]

>In what fields is the government 10-15 years ahead of consumer tech?

Antenna design.

My employer is building specialized antennas for the military that, once the research, design, and infrastructure has been paid for and put into place by the department of defense, will filter down into enterprise applications and then finally consumer goods.

Dynamic metasurfaces, dynamic polarizations, and dynamic multiband rx/tx for antennas are all coming, eventually, to smartphones. Just got to get them a little smaller and a lot cheaper, but that's coming.

All paid for by AFRL, DARPA, and NRL grants.

I don't work in the field. I would never tempt insanity by working in RF. I just reap the ESPP benefits from my employer raking in the cash by licensing out its tech to various OEMs.

[oldstrangers]

Aviation is a big one. The SR71 was in the sky in 1964. The gap is probably even closer to 20 years for "consumer" Aviation tech.

[kccqzy]

The electronically steered phased array antennas used by SpaceX for Starlink dishes (a consumer product only recently) was already used by the U.S. military 20 years ago. Although 20 years ago such a thing cost seven digits.

[arminiusreturns]

FYI, most of the lead has been lost, and I now put that old 00's era 15-20 year marker closer to 5 years, which may help others understand the arms race we are in. (the people vs the supranational oligarchs)