Should the government increase or decrease military spending?

Canada pledges to spend more on defense; US applauds move

Canada, under pressure from the United States to ramp up defense spending, on Monday pledged billions more for the armed forces and said its military expenditures would be closer to the NATO target by 2030.In a defense policy update, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal government said protecting the Arctic, as well as dealing with security challenges from Russia and China, meant Ottawa needed to beef up its defenses."We are stepping up once again, to preserve and defend the rules-based order that has allowed people around the world to prosper for the better part of the last century," Trudeau said in a press conference.Canada's military spending is set to hit 1.76% of its gross domestic product by 2030, still short of the 2% target NATO sets for member states, but up from the current 1.4%. Officials told reporters there was no target date to hit the 2% mark.It is also unclear how much of the spending program will be put into effect, since polls show the Liberals badly trailing the official opposition Conservative Party ahead of an election that must be held by late October of 2025.The U.S., which for years pressured Canada to boost defense spending, welcomed the update."The policy appears to articulate a substantial down payment toward Canada's pledge to meet its NATO commitment... we are also encouraged by the assurances we have received that there will be additional investments," David Cohen, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, said in a statement.In February, Cohen noted other nations were doing more on defense and said "I don't think Canada has any interest in being that kind of an outlier in NATO."Canada, which has an annual defense budget of around C$31 billion ($22.8 billion), aims to spend an extra C$8.1 billion over the next five years and a total of C$73 billion more over the next 20 years.The world's second-largest country by territory, Canada only has 40 million people and also plays a large role in monitoring a huge Arctic territory stretching across 4.4 million square km (1.7 million square miles) of land and water.

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‘Social Order Could Collapse’ in AI Era, Two Top Japan Companies Say

Japan’s largest telecommunications company and the country’s biggest newspaper called for speedy legislation to restrain generative artificial intelligence, saying democracy and social order could collapse if AI is left unchecked.The Japanese companies’ manifesto, while pointing to the potential benefits of generative AI in improving productivity, took a generally skeptical view of the technology. Without giving specifics, it said AI tools have already begun to damage human dignity because the tools are sometimes designed to seize users’ attention without regard to morals or accuracy.Unless AI is restrained, “in the worst-case scenario, democracy and social order could collapse, resulting in wars,” the manifesto said.It said Japan should take measures immediately in response, including laws to protect elections and national security from abuse of generative AI.A global push is under way to regulate AI, with the European Union at the forefront. The EU’s new law calls on makers of the most powerful AI models to put them through safety evaluations and notify regulators of serious incidents. It also is set to ban the use of emotion-recognition AI in schools and workplaces.The Biden administration is also stepping up oversight, invoking emergency federal powers last October to compel major AI companies to notify the government when developing systems that pose a serious risk to national security. The U.S., U.K. and Japan have each set up government-led AI safety institutes to help develop AI guidelines.Still, governments of democratic nations are struggling to figure out how to regulate AI-powered speech, such as social-media activity, given constitutional and other protections for free speech.NTT and Yomiuri said their manifesto was motivated by concern over public discourse. The two companies are among Japan’s most influential in policy. The government still owns about one-third of NTT, formerly the state-controlled phone monopoly.Yomiuri Shimbun, which has a morning circulation of about six million copies according to industry figures, is Japan’s most widely-read newspaper. Under the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his successors, the newspaper’s conservative editorial line has been influential in pushing the ruling Liberal Democratic Party to expand military spending and deepen the nation’s alliance with the U.S.The two companies said their executives have been examining the impact of generative AI since last year in a study group guided by Keio University researchers.

U.S. Military Panics As China And Russia Launch Hypersonic Missiles

China surprised U.S. military leaders when, in 2021, it launched a hypersonic missile over the South China Sea that traveled at speeds of more than 15,000 mph. Russia is using hypersonic missiles against Ukraine, including a new one Moscow says can travel eight times the speed of sound with a 660-pound warhead. “America needs to regain its edge in terms of its ability to strike targets at range,” said Bryon Hargis, chief executive of Castelion, a startup in California developing a long-range hypersonic weapons system that will include explosives.Hypersonic aircraft and weapons fly at five times the speed of sound or faster, which is at least 3,800 miles an hour. The aircraft must be able to withstand temperatures of thousands of degrees. The major powers of the world are in a race to develop the most sophisticated missiles that can be launched from long distances, evade air defenses, maneuver and strike targets quickly—before the enemy can make preparations or even know they are coming.The U.S. military has little to show after spending billions of dollars over decades trying to develop the advanced systems. It has no offensive or defensive hypersonic systems in deployment. In 2021, the Defense Department outlined plans to field offensive hypersonic weapons in the early to mid-2020s.

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