Executive Summary:
- Researchers in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) have optimized Meta’s Llama model for specialized military and security purposes.
- ChatBIT, an adapted Llama model, appears to be successful in demonstrations in which it was used in military contexts such as intelligence, situational analysis, and mission support, outperforming other comparable models.
- Open-source models like Llama are valuable for innovation, but their deployment to enhance the capabilities of foreign militaries raises concerns about dual-use applications. The customization of Llama by defense researchers in the PRC highlights gaps in enforcement for open-source usage restrictions, underscoring the need for stronger oversight to prevent strategic misuse.
Yes, both. Some of the sources like 15 and 18 are duplicates and don’t match with the dates of the articles I find when searching for the title in Chinese… And I mean I’d expect some large meeting to maybe have an english name, or at least someone else having translated it and showing up on google. Links or DOIs would help. But there aren’t any in the references. Additionally, the references section is titled incorrectly as “Notes” and the whole article is a weird crossover between the format of a scientific paper and a journalistic article. (And a bit repetetive in phrasing.)
I can’t read chinese so my abilities are limited. And I don’t know what kind of search engines are used for (scholarly) articles whithin China. I doubt it’s Google.
The whole thing seems a bit fishy to me. Though, I’m pretty sure the PRC is doing reasearch in using AI for warfare. They have that (investing in AI for the CCP’s motivations) on their agenda for quite some time now. And they’re investing a huge pile of money into AI, dystopian surceillance tech and machine learning tools for the police. All of that isn’t disputed.