U.S. technology companies have become important actors in modern conflicts, and several of them have meaningfully contributed to Ukraine’s defense. But many of these companies are deeply entangled with China, potentially complicating their decision-making in a potential Taiwan contingency.| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
This report examines nearly 350 artificial intelligence-related equipment contracts awarded by the People’s Liberation Army and state-owned defense enterprises in 2020 to assess how the Chinese military is adopting AI. The report identifies China’s key AI defense industry suppliers, highlights gaps in U.S. export control policies, and contextualizes the PLA’s AI investments within China’s broader strategy to compete militarily with the United States.| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
China is following a national strategy to lead the world in artificial intelligence by 2030, including by pursuing “general AI” that can act autonomously in novel circumstances. Open-source research identifies 30 Chinese institutions engaged in one or more of this project‘s aspects, including machine learning, brain-inspired AI, and brain-computer interfaces. This report previews a CSET pilot program that will track China’s progress and provide timely alerts.| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
This report examines how 17 leading U.S. technology companies are economically and operationally entangled with Taiwan. By mapping investments, R&D efforts, data centers, and supply chains, it sheds light on how these ties could influence corporate behavior in a future conflict with China, and what risks and incentives may shape tech companies’ decisions in a Taiwan contingency.| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
Recent op-eds comparing the United States’ and China’s artificial intelligence (AI) programs fault the former for its focus on artificial general intelligence (AGI) while praising China for its success in applying AI throughout the whole of society. These op-eds overlook an important point: although China is outpacing the United States in diffusing AI across its society, China has by no means de-emphasized its state-sponsored pursuit of AGI. The post China’s Artificial General Intellige...| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
Helen Toner, incoming Interim Executive Director for CSET, shares the insights and experiences she is excited to bring to her new role and her vision for the organization’s future. The post Getting to know CSET’s Interim Executive Director Helen Toner appeared first on Center for Security and Emerging Technology.| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
The Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET) at Georgetown University has appointed Helen Toner as Interim Executive Director effective September 2, 2025. The post Helen Toner Named Interim Executive Director appeared first on Center for Security and Emerging Technology.| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
CSET's Kathleen Curlee was featured in a short-form documentary published by CNBC. The documentary traces SpaceX’s rise from a struggling startup to a $400 billion company that now dominates the global space industry, while raising questions about the national security implications of U.S. dependence on a single private actor. The post How The U.S. Became So Dependent On SpaceX appeared first on Center for Security and Emerging Technology.| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
CSET’s Jacob Feldgoise shared his expert analysis in an article published by BBC. The article discusses the U.S. government’s 10% stake in Intel, highlighting the move as part of broader efforts to strengthen domestic semiconductor production and maintain U.S. technological leadership. The post White House announces chipmaker Intel to give US government 10% stake appeared first on Center for Security and Emerging Technology.| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
CSET’s Sam Bresnick and CSIS’s Aidan Powers-Riggs shared their expert analysis in an article published by Lawfare. In their piece, they explore how the U.S.–China competition over artificial intelligence is reshaping strategic calculations around Taiwan.| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
CSET produces data-driven research at the intersection of security and technology, providing nonpartisan analysis to the policy community. CSET is currently focusing on the effects of progress in artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing. We seek to prepare a new generation of decision-makers to address the challenges and opportunities of emerging technologies.| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
CSET’s Jacob Feldgoise shared his expert analysis in an article published by Bloomberg. The article discusses a controversial revenue-sharing deal in which Nvidia and AMD agreed to pay 15% of their Chinese AI chip sales to the U.S. government, highlighting how the Trump administration has softened export controls in exchange for financial concessions. The post Nvidia, AMD Reach Deal to Give US a Cut of China AI Chip Sales appeared first on Center for Security and Emerging Technology.| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
Sam Bresnick, CSET Research Fellow and Andrew W. Marshall Fellow, was featured in an episode of The Lawfare Podcast. The episode discusses his recently published report, Big Tech in Taiwan: Beyond Semiconductors, as well as a previous report, Which Ties Will Bind?: Big Tech, Lessons from Ukraine, and Implications for Taiwan. The post Lawfare Daily: ‘Big Tech in Taiwan’ with Sam Bresnick appeared first on Center for Security and Emerging Technology.| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
CSET’s Jessica Ji shared her expert analysis in an interview published by Science News. The interview discusses the U.S. government’s new action plan to integrate artificial intelligence into federal operations and highlights the significant privacy, cybersecurity, and civil liberties risks of using AI tools on consolidated sensitive data, such as health, financial, and personal records. The post The U.S. government wants to go ‘all in’ on AI. There are big risks appeared first on Cen...| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
CSET’s Sam Bresnick shared his expert analysis in an op-ed published by Nikkei Asia. In his piece, he explores the evolving role of U.S. technology companies in international security, particularly in times of conflict, and examines the contrast between their decisive support for Ukraine during Russia’s 2022 invasion and the uncertainty surrounding their potential response in a Taiwan-China crisis. The post Big tech is expanding in Taiwan, but may not aid Taipei in a crisis appeared first...| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
AI has the potential to transform cybersecurity through automation of vulnerability discovery, patching, and exploitation. Integrating these models with traditional software security tools allows engineers to proactively secure and harden systems earlier in the software development process.| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
Automation bias is a critical issue for artificial intelligence deployment. It can cause otherwise knowledgeable users to make crucial and even obvious errors. Organizational, technical, and educational leaders can mitigate these biases through training, design, and processes. This paper explores automation bias and ways to mitigate it through three case studies: Tesla’s autopilot incidents, aviation incidents at Boeing and Airbus, and Army and Navy air defense incidents.| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
CSET Research Analyst, Mina Narayanan shared her expert insights in an article published by Defense One. The piece examines President Trump’s newly released AI Action Plan, which outlines a sweeping effort to secure American dominance in artificial intelligence by accelerating military adoption, fast-tracking infrastructure, and expanding U.S. influence in global AI governance.| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
On July 23, the White House published its long-awaited AI Action plan. In this post, CSET's Alex Friedland breaks down the most important takeaways.| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
CSET's Jacob Feldgoise and Hanna Dohmen outline China's market share gains in semiconductor manufacturing equipment, based on data from CSET ETO's updated Supply Chain Explorer.| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
Lauren A. Kahn co-authored an op-ed published by the Council on Foreign Relations alongside Erin D. Dumbacher and Michael C. Horowitz. The piece examines the sweeping national security implications of President Trump’s One, Big Beautiful Bill Act, which significantly boosts U.S. defense spending through an unconventional funding route outside the standard Pentagon budget process.| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
Lauren Kahn shared her expert insights in an article published by DefenseScoop. The article discusses the Trump administration’s new executive order on “Unleashing American Drone Dominance,” which aims to accelerate domestic drone development and adoption within the Department of Defense.| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
In an op-ed article published in Lawfare, CSET’s Lauren Kahn discusses the increasing integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in military operations globally and the need for effective governance to avoid potential mishaps and escalation.| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
CSET’s Lauren A. Kahn co-authored an op-ed published by Foreign Affairs alongside Michael C. Horowitz and Joshua A. Schwartz. The piece explores how recent drone operations by Ukraine and Israel signal a turning point in modern warfare, demonstrating the growing power of low-cost, AI-enabled systems against traditional military platforms.| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
CSET’s Lauren A. Kahn and CFR's Michael C. Horowitz shared their expert analysis in an op-ed published by AI Frontiers. In their piece, they examine the growing calls to regulate artificial intelligence in ways similar to nuclear technology.| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
CSET’s Lauren A. Kahn and CFR’s Michael C. Horowitz shared their expert analysis in an op-ed published by The National Interest. In their piece, they explore how the U.S. Department of Defense’s outdated budget process is undermining the military’s ability to adopt and scale emerging technologies quickly enough to deter rising global threats.| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education is simplifying its top-tier R1 research criteria this year. Recognizing the strategic importance of historically Black colleges and universities, Congress passed Section 223 of the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act to increase defense research capacity by encouraging the most eligible among these institutions to seek the highly coveted R1 status. This in-depth analysis examines the 2025 classification changes, their effect ...| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
CSET's Jaret C. Riddick and Hayes Meredith provided their expert analysis in an op-ed published by the Council on Foreign Relations. In their piece, they discuss the critical role of place-based industrial innovation policy in maintaining U.S. economic competitiveness and national security amid intensifying global strategic competition.| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
In an article by Inside Higher Ed, CSET’s Jaret Riddick shared his expert insights on Howard University's anticipated attainment of Research-1 (R-1) status in 2025.| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education is making changes to drastically simplify the criteria that determine its highly coveted R1 top-tier research classification. Last year, CSET Senior Fellow, Jaret Riddick, wrote about a new law from Congress, Section 223 of the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, intended to leverage existing Carnegie classification criteria to increase defense research capacity for historically Black colleges and universities. Now, research...| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
CSET’s Jaret C. Riddick and Brendan Oliss analyze their newly released research published in the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. Their piece examines how the 2025 revision of the Carnegie Classification criteria is impacting HBCUs’ progress toward R1 status.| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
Policymakers continue to debate the ability of the United States to attract and retain top international talent. This Issue Brief assesses how many international Ph.D. graduates across various STEM fields and nationalities intend to stay in the United States after completing their degrees.| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
A CSET report was highlighted in an article published by The Wall Street Journal. The article discusses Donald Trump’s escalating campaign against Harvard University, including efforts to cancel federal contracts, freeze grant funding, and bar the university from enrolling international students.| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
CSET’s Cole McFaul was quoted in a segment aired by NPR’s All Things Considered. The segment discusses the U.S. government’s decision to revoke visas for certain Chinese students.| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
U.S. policymakers are increasingly concerned about the national security implications of U.S. investments in China, and some are considering a new regime for reviewing outbound investment security. The authors identify the main U.S. investors active in the Chinese artificial intelligence market and the set of AI companies in China that have benefitted from U.S. capital. They also recommend next steps for U.S. policymakers to better address the concerns over capital flowing into the Chinese AI...| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
A CSET Data Snapshot was cited in an article published by The Wall Street Journal. The piece discusses Huawei's advancements in developing a new AI chip, the Ascend 910C, which positions the company to challenge U.S. tech giant Nvidia in the Chinese market.| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
A core question in policy debates around artificial intelligence is whether federal agencies can use their existing authorities to govern AI or if the government needs new legal powers to manage the technology. The authors argue that relying on existing authorities is the most effective approach to promoting the safe development and deployment of AI systems, at least in the near term. This report outlines a process for identifying existing legal authorities that could apply to AI and highligh...| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
Since 2022, U.S. export controls have restricted the highest-performing AI chips from being exported to China. The Biden administration likely did not intend to control CPUs (i.e., general-purpose processors) with these restrictions. However, CPUs are increasingly subject to export controls because chip designers are incorporating specialized elements for AI computation into CPUs. In this blog post, we discuss the implications of controlling AI-capable CPUs and make recommendations for the Bu...| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
The European Union's Artificial Intelligence Act has officially come into force today after more than five years of legislative processes and negotiations. While marking a significant milestone, it also initiates a prolonged phase of implementation, refinement, and enforcement. This blog post outlines key aspects of the regulation, such as rules for general-purpose AI and governance structures, and provides insights into its timeline and future expectations.| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
A CSET data snapshot was highlighted in a New York Times article discussing the challenges faced by the U.S. government in enforcing technology export controls aimed at preventing advanced chip technology from reaching Chinese firms like Huawei, which is under U.S. sanctions.| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
In their op-ed in Newsweek, Jack Corrigan and Sam Bresnick discuss the recent release of DeepSeek's AI model, R1, which has surprised the global tech industry by matching the performance of leading U.S. models at a lower cost. This development challenges the assumption that restricting China's access to advanced chips would significantly hinder its AI progress.| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
In a recent episode of the Cato Institute's Power Problems, CSET’s Sam Bresnick discusses artificial intelligence within the framework of the US-China relationship.| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
In his Foreign Affairs op-ed, Sam Bresnick discusses China’s ambitious push to develop AI-enabled military technologies, which it views as essential to rival or surpass the U.S. military. While Beijing is investing heavily in AI for improved decision-making, operational precision, and resource allocation, significant challenges remain.| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
In a China Global podcast episode about the Chinese perspectives on the military use of AI, CSET's Sam Bresnick shares his expert insights.| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
In a segment in the Lawfare Marketplace Morning Report, Jacob Feldgoise provides his expert analysis on the escalating trade tensions between the U.S. and China.| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
Since 2019, the U.S. government has imposed restrictive export controls on Huawei—one of China’s leading tech giants—seeking, in part, to hinder the company’s AI chip development efforts. This data snapshot reveals how exactly Huawei’s latest AI chip—the Ascend 910B—improves on the prior generation and demonstrates how export controls are likely hindering Huawei’s production.| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
The success of modern AI techniques relies on computation on a scale unimaginable even a few years ago. What exactly are the AI chips powering the development and deployment of AI at scale and why are they essential? Saif M. Khan and Alexander Mann explain how these chips work, why they have proliferated, and why they matter. Their report also surveys trends in the semiconductor industry and chip design that are shaping the evolution of AI chips.| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
On October 17, 2023, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued an update to last year’s export controls on advanced computing, supercomputing and semiconductor manufacturing equipment. This blog post provides an overview of the updated advanced computing controls, analyzes more than 100 relevant chips, and discusses the licensing policies for the expanded chip restrictions and the increased country scope.| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
A recent topic of contention among artificial intelligence researchers has been whether large language models can exhibit unpredictable ("emergent") jumps in capability as they are scaled up. These arguments have found their way into policy circles and the popular press, often in simplified or distorted ways that have created confusion. This blog post explores the disagreements around emergence and their practical relevance for policy.| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
Place to find CSET's publications, reports, and people| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
How can policymakers credibly reveal and assess intentions in the field of artificial intelligence? Policymakers can send credible signals of their intent by making pledges or committing to undertaking certain actions for which they will pay a price—political, reputational, or monetary—if they back down or fail to make good on their initial promise or threat. Talk is cheap, but inadvertent escalation is costly to all sides.| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
See our original translation of a speech that Xi delivered to a meeting of academics in 2020 that he convened to solicit input for China’s upcoming 14th Five-Year Plan.| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
Between 2012 and 2018, the amount of computing power used by record-breaking artificial intelligence models doubled every 3.4 months. Even with money pouring into the AI field, this trendline is unsustainable. Because of cost, hardware availability and engineering difficulties, the next decade of AI can't rely exclusively on applying more and more computing power to drive further progress.| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
Read our original translation of China's 14th Five-Year Plan, which was passed by the National People's Congress in March, 2021, and covers the years 2021-2025.| Center for Security and Emerging Technology
