The Week That Was

AI and Defense—The Times They Are a-Changin'

Feb 17, 2025

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Bob Dylan wrote “Times they are A-Changin’” in the 1960’s. And he was right about those years.This past week he could have written those again with equal parts fact and prophecy. Consider just two events: J.D. Vance, the Vice President, on Artificial Intelligence in France and Pete Hegseth, Defense Secretary, on a new reality in Germany.

J.D. VANCE

In what I think historians will call one of the most remarkable speeches of this decade, the Vice President outlined an approach to Artificial Intelligence this week that may change the world. It was missed by many because, as always, President Trump sucks all the oxygen out of the room, but if you have just a moment this weekend listen to or read it. (Available on You Tube: “VP J.D. Vance on the future of artificial intelligence”)

Artificial Intelligence is changing the world. ChatGPT and its progeny are unsettling to this 71-year-old, but for our children and grandchildren they are a fact of life. If you doubt this, take a moment to order a product on the Walmart website. What you are likely to see is a description that explicitly notes it is an AI-generated summary. If you have a hospital-based test, the results are likely reviewed by an AI program to ensure accuracy. Go to the airport and watch as the screener takes your picture—you are permanently in an AI database. Indeed, watch your son or daughter play a video game, but know that game and its future iterations are likely generated by AI. So it goes.

In the face of this enormous change, what will the future hold? J.D. Vance outlined that future in his Paris speech, and it was nothing short of revolutionary for the Europeans. We are a country based on freedom, Vance explained, and it is freedom that will dominate American policy going forward. Any censorship or regulation of AI will, in Vance’s view, gravely affect, in a negative way, the future of the West. One can be certain that China, Russia and other adversaries will not be so limiting, and the US intends to stay far ahead of them by an abiding faith in freedom. AI is the new industrial revolution and, in the view of J.D. Vance clearly speaking for President Trump, the US intends to lead the way.

PETE HEGSETH

While the message from J.D. Vance on AI is one that many find unsettling—inevitable, but still unsettling—the message delivered by Pete Hegseth is a message of profound security.

Speaking in Germany, Hegseth outlined a new vibrancy for our military. Starting his day working out with the troops, he could not have sent a clearer message. The robust, warrior mentality has returned. We do not seek confrontation, but we will repel any enemy. This is such a far cry from his predecessor that it is hard to imagine. That this message was delivered in Europe was no mistake. Europeans nearly uniformly have become weak sisters in the house that is the West. No more—the tide has shifted, and Hegseth will lead that effort.

Like the AI revolution, the Hegseth comments and actions are a bow to the reality of power. Nations do not have friends, they have allies. Nations have mutual interests and when those interests diverge the alliance breaks down, violence erupts and evil triumphs. These are simple historical facts, but in recent years the West seems to have forgotten them. No more.

While AI will change the world, a robust American defense will protect that world and insure the new economic revolution AI promises. Those are messages delivered in tandem by Vance and Hegseth this week. So, while we are entertained by Musk’s exposure of ever-more-bizarre federal waste and relieved by Tom Homan’s robust enforcement of our border laws, the real action was in the far-sighted thoughts and actions of Vance and Hegseth.

Pop the popcorn, sit back and enjoy the moment. These are times that will reshape the future and revive the American spirit.