The Pentagon's first software chief RESIGNS in protest because the US has 'already lost' the AI war with China and is '20 years behind its technology'

 The Pentagon's first ever chief software officer resigned last month in protest of the slow pace of technological transformation in the U.S. military, claiming the failure to respond to China winning the Artificial Intelligence battle is putting the U.S. at risk.

Nicolas Chaillan, 37, told the Financial Times after resigning: 'We have no competing fighting chance against China in 15 to 20 years.'

'Right now, it's already a done deal – it is already over in my opinion,' he added. 'Whether it takes a war or not is kind of anecdotal.'

Chaillan worked for three years on a Pentagon project aimed at boosting cyber security. He was the first chief software officer for the Air Force.

He said in his interview published Sunday that China has won over the U.S. and is on track towards global dominance due to its technological advances.

In the coming weeks, Chaillan said he will testify before Congress about the Chinese cyber threat to U.S. supremacy, including in classified briefings.

China, the world's second largest economy, is likely to dominate many of the key emerging technologies, particularly artificial intelligence, synthetic biology and genetics within a decade or so, according to Western intelligence assessments.

The communist nation is set to dominate the future of the world, controlling everything from media narratives to geopolitics, Chaillan said.

He blamed sluggish innovation, the reluctance of U.S. companies such as Google to work with the government on AI and extensive ethical debates over the technology.

Google was not immediately available for comment outside business hours when Reuters reached out.

Chinese companies, Chaillan said, were obliged to work with their government and were making 'massive investment' in AI without regard to ethics.

He said U.S. cyber defenses in some government departments were at 'kindergarten level'.

Chaillan announced his resignation at the beginning of September, saying military officials were repeatedly put in charge of cyber initiatives for which they lacked experience.

A spokesperson for the Department of the Air Force said Frank Kendall, secretary of the U.S. Air Force, had discussed with Chaillan his recommendations for the department's future software development following his resignation and thanked him for his contributions, the FT said. 

Tensions in Asia are high right now as the Chinese Communist Party detailed its intentions to reunify with Taiwan.

Chinese state media The Global Times threatened on Sunday that the CCP 'will have little choice but to take Taiwan to the battlefield' after the island's president, Tsai Ing-wen, vowed to resist 'threats' from Beijing.

Quoting from 'experts' within China , the paper accused 'secessionist' Tsai of stirring up tensions while warning that 'resisting reunification by force will only bring doom more quickly.'