SYDNEY: The US technological edge is eroding, an Australian intelligence chief said on Tuesday , as a Sydney conference was told the AUKUS alliance of Australia, Britain and the United States must collaborate on quantum and hypersonic technology to compete with China.
"We are seeing our longstanding technological edge start to erode, and in some cases that edge is totally gone," he added., but Defence Minister Richard Marles told the conference, hosted by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, it would also share other defence technologies. Britain was behind where it wanted to be in hypersonics and AUKUS would help, said Stephen Lovegrove, Britain's former national security adviser.Schmidt, who has advised United States Department of Defense on artificial intelligence, said China is organised around drones, hypersonic and automation technology, and this should influence Australia's military spending decisions.