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REDMOND, Washington. – Microsoft announced on Friday that it would sell to the military and intelligence agencies all the cutting-edge technologies needed to "strengthen the defense", just months after Google announced to the Pentagon he would refuse to provide more accurate artificial intelligence products drones or compete with China for next-generation weapons.
This announcement, which was announced Thursday in a blog Friday afternoon at a small in camera meeting with the software giant's leaders, highlighted the radically different paths taken by the big US tech companies . their role in creating a new generation of electronic weapons to help, if not replace, one day the American warriors.
But the divergent paths taken by Google and Microsoft also underscore the concerns of US intelligence and intelligence institutions about how the United States will confront rising China.
Over the past two years, the Chinese government has set goals of dominance in the areas of artificial intelligence, quantum computing and other technologies that it believes allow its military and intelligence agencies to surpass those of the United States. Pentagon officials have asked how national tech companies want to keep the US pioneering, like Raytheon, Boeing, IBM, and McDonnell Douglas during the Cold War. .
Even before Friday's announcement, Microsoft seemed to be the only plausible alternative for the Pentagon's giant cloud project, called JEDI, in which Amazon is considered the favorite.
But the announcement from Microsoft could have a bigger impact on future technologies, including warning systems and artificial intelligence weapons. And Microsoft executives, after brief debates this summer, concluded that by giving up the auction, Google was also losing any real influence on the use of weapons.
"It was not a hard decision to make," said Brad Smith, president and general counsel for Microsoft, in an interview in his office. "Microsoft was born in the United States, its headquarters are in the United States and has grown with all the advantages that have existed for a long time in this country."
But Mr. Smith seemed to be trying to find a common ground.
He has sued the US government several times to stop Washington's efforts to obtain information about its customers in its servers. He insists that new international agreements limit how the United States and their adversaries can use cyber-weapons.
He also stated in his article on the blog that "withdrawing from this market, is reducing our ability to participate in public debate on the best way to use new technologies responsibly.
"We will not withdraw from the future," he said.
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