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<ul class="summary-list"><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-world-records-chili-peppers-international-space-station-2021-12">NASA</a> is <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-launches-nasa-ixpe-satellite-black-holes-dead-stars-2021-12">launching</a> its next <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-hubble-portraits-jupiter-saturn-uranus-neptune-changing-weather-colors-2021-11">major space observatory</a>. The real nail-biter is the weeks after liftoff.</li><li>The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-james-webb-space-telescope-first-year-in-space-2021-12">James Webb Space Telescope</a> must unfold in <keyword id="11895441" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="space" source="Orion">space</keyword> — a complex maneuver <keyword id="6360409" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="nasa" source="Orion">NASA</keyword> has never attempted.</li></ul><p>NASA has loaded its most valuable, delicate telescope onto a 15-story rocket in French Guiana. On Friday, the agency will fill the rocket with highly combustible liquid oxygen and hydrogen fuel, fire the engines, and watch it scream through the atmosphere with a $10 billion observatory in tow.</p><p>The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-james-webb-space-telescope-first-year-in-space-2021-12">James Webb Space Telescope</a> — JWST, or simply "Webb," for short — is the largest and most powerful space observatory ever built. If all goes according to plan, it will revolutionize <keyword id="11949140" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="astronomy" source="Orion">astronomy</keyword>.</p><p>But first the telescope has to safely get into position. Launch, which is scheduled for December 24, is only half the battle.</p><p>Webb's main feature is a 21-foot-wide mirror made up of 18 gold-coated beryllium panels, which sits atop a diamond-shaped sunshield the size of a tennis court. Both were too big to fit in any existing rocket without folding up like a drop-leaf table. Instead, they'll have to unfold, or "deploy," in space.</p><p>Unfolding a telescope as large and complex as Webb is a risky maneuver and one that NASA has never tried before. If any of the deployment mechanisms snag or malfunction, NASA can't send an astronaut to the <keyword id="12179462" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="spacecraft" source="Orion">spacecraft</keyword> to fix it or replace the broken part.</p><p>Failure could mean $10 billion wasted and the hopes of countless astronomers down the drain.</p><div type="image" title="james webb space telescope lifted vertically enormous gold mirrors wrapped in purple foil inside white cleanroom" height="2048" width="1536" msid="88415731" hostid="261"></div><p>"When I started in this business about 40 years ago, I remember one of the first lessons I got taught was avoid deployments on orbit," Mike Menzel, NASA's lead mission systems engineer for Webb, said in a November press briefing. "James Webb cannot avoid the deployments. In fact, James Webb has to perform some of the most complex sequence of deployments ever attempted."</p><p>Webb must also align its mirrors, calibrate its instruments, and fall into an orbit trailing Earth around the sun from about 1 million miles away — four times the distance between the moon and Earth. The whole process is expected to take about six months.</p><p>"We've built it, we've aligned it, we've tested it, we've proved it worked. Now we're going to have to break it up, fold it up, and actually rebuild it on orbit," Menzel said, adding, "That's never been done before."</p><div type="image" title="james webb space telecsope folded up hanging above hole with yellow railings" height="1872" width="2496" msid="88415734" hostid="261"></div><p>Webb is a decades-long project of NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Canadian Space Agency. Redesigns, technical errors, and extreme weather events repeatedly delayed launch and drove up its price tag from the original $500 million. Now it faces one last barrier to the new era of space astronomy.</p><p>"Unfolding Webb is hands down the most complicated spacecraft activity we've ever done," Menzel said in a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUAvXYW5bmI">NASA video</a>.</p><h2>Webb will spend its first 2 weeks in space unfolding itself</h2><p>The deployments should happen within two weeks of launch. If anything goes wrong, NASA can't send humans or robots to fix it. Webb is on its own.</p><p>The sunshield will unfold first, since it's critical to Webb's functioning. Five layers of Kapton film have to block sunlight from hitting the rest of the telescope, allowing the mirrors and <keyword id="11896083" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="science" source="Orion">science</keyword> instruments to cool to a frigid minus 380 degrees Fahrenheit — far colder than any place on Earth.</p><p>It will take Webb about two months to reach that temperature, which is how cold the observatory must be to detect faint heat of distant stars and planets in the form of infrared light. For its mid-infrared instrument, which needs to reach an even lower temperature of minus 447 degrees Fahrenheit, cooling will take about 100 days.</p><p>That can only happen if the sunshield unfolds properly. But its floppy material makes it deployment's biggest wild card.</p><p>"Take a string and put it on a tabletop and push on it, and see if you can predict the shape of that string. Chances are you will not be able to, and so it is with the membranes of the sunshield," Menzel said.</p><p>If that floppy material opens into the wrong shape, or snags on other parts of the observatory, it could be a disaster for Webb. So NASA and its contractor, Northrop Grumman, have built a complex unfolding system for the sunshield, employing 140 release mechanisms, 70 hinge assemblies, eight motors, 400 pulleys, and 1,312 feet of cable.</p><h2>Webb has 344 opportunities for failure. Most are part of unfolding.</h2><p>All of the sunshield's release mechanisms are what NASA calls "single-point failures." If they don't work, there is no backup for them. They either let the sunshield unfold or they don't. No sunshield could mean no functional telescope.</p><p>If a release mechanism fails, NASA has a few troubleshooting options: resend the command to release, spin the observatory or rock it back and forth to dislodge anything that's stuck, or turn the telescope toward the sun to heat up the troublesome mechanism. But it can't rely on backup hardware. Each mechanism must work in order to unfold the sunshield.</p><p>Overall, Webb has 344 single-point failure items. About 80% of those items are part of the deployment process, Menzel said. Many of them are necessary to prevent the sunshield from being dangerously floppy. But each single-point failure item adds its own risk to the deployment process.</p><p>To strike the right balance — controlling the sunshield without adding too many opportunities for failure — NASA conducted several studies and consulted independent review groups, according to Menzel.</p><p>"We've all agreed we found the sweet spot on this," he said.</p><p>NASA has also inspected and tested each single-point failure item to identify all the ways it could malfunction and reduce the likelihood of such a failure, he added.</p><p>Once the sunshield is open, Webb must unfold a tripod holding its secondary mirror, then open the two flaps of its main mirrors. If that's successful, it will still be five months before Webb can start conducting science. It needs three months to get its mirror into alignment and two to calibrate its science instruments.</p><p>Only then can Webb engineers in the US, Europe, and Canada breathe a sigh of relief.</p>

The $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope has to unfold itself in space — a nail-biting maneuver NASA's never attempted

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="6360409" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="nasa" source="Orion">NASA</keyword> successfully deployed its James Webb Telescope in <keyword id="11895441" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="space" source="Orion">space</keyword>, the agency reported. </li><li>A team of scientists had slowly been unfolding the telescope since it launched on Christmas Day. </li></ul><p>NASA achieved a major breakthrough Saturday after its <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-james-webb-space-telescope-first-year-in-space-2021-12?r=US&amp;IR=T">James Webb Telescope</a> successfully unfolded in space, <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-s-webb-telescope-reaches-major-milestone-as-mirror-unfolds">the agency announced</a>. </p><p>The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-james-webb-space-telescope-to-unfold-after-launch-2021-12?r=US&amp;IR=T">risky manoeuvre</a>, which NASA has never pulled off before, marked the final stage of the telescope's 50 major deployments. NASA teams remotely opened the machine days after launch. </p><p>The 21-foot instrument was <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-launches-james-webb-space-telescope-2021-12?r=US&amp;IR=T">blasted</a> into the skies from French Guiana on Christmas Day. Astronomers expect Webb to fill a mysterious gap in the historical record of our universe — the first 400 million years after the Big Bang — and identify distant worlds that could host life. </p><p>NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a press release: "Today, NASA achieved another engineering milestone decades in the making. While the journey is not complete, I join the Webb team in breathing a little easier and imagining the future breakthroughs bound to inspire the world."</p><p>He added: "The <keyword id="12594489" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="james-webb-space-telescope" source="Orion">James Webb Space Telescope</keyword> is an unprecedented mission that is on the precipice of seeing the light from the first galaxies and discovering the mysteries of our universe." </p><p>The telescope, which is 100 times more powerful than its predecessor, the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-hubble-space-telescope-photos-nebula-galaxies-universe-2021-6?r=US&amp;IR=T">Hubble Space Telescope</a>, cost $10 billion to create and was developed in conjunction with the European Space Agency and Canadian Space Agency. </p><p>The unfurling of Webb was a tricky proposition. Webb has two major components: a hexagonal mirror made of 18 gold-coated segments and a sunshield the size of a tennis court, which deflects sunlight to keep the telescope cool. Both were too large to fit in a rocket, so NASA folded them up like a drop-leaf table.</p><p>The successful completion means the telescope will spend about four months aligning and focusing its mirrors. Then the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/astronomers-ask-nasa-for-huge-space-telescope-image-habitable-planets-2021-11?r=US&amp;IR=T">observatory</a> will calibrate its <keyword id="11896083" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="science" source="Orion">science</keyword> instruments: four cameras and spectrographs designed to observe the universe in different wavelengths of infrared light.</p>

NASA successfully completes unfolding of James Webb space telescope, which has been hailed as a groundbreaking achievement

<ul class="summary-list"><li>JWST snaps thousands of photos of our universe, from sparkling <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/james-webb-space-telescopes-stellar-nurseries-stunning-detail-2024-3">stellar nurseries</a> to clusters of distant galaxies.</li><li>But it takes human image processors, like Joe DePasquale, to turn these photos into works of art.</li></ul><p>Two years ago today, NASA unveiled the first full-color space images captured by the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-james-webb-telescope-13-billion-old-galaxy-not-exist-2024-2">James Webb Space Telescope</a>.</p><p>We often hear about the scientists who study <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-webb-space-telescope-reveals-uranus-rings-new-image-2023-12">JWST's space images</a> and what they discover, but behind these beautiful works of art are image processors like Joe DePasquale who can spend days, or even weeks, transforming a single image.</p><p>Webb's raw telescope images can look like empty black boxes when they first beam back to Earth. It takes science, intuition, and sometimes a bit of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/learning/adobe-creative-cloud-photoshop-premiere-pro-price">Photoshop</a> to tease out the most important moments, DePasquale said.</p><div type="image" title="Cosmic cliffs" height="719" width="1244" msid="111697410" hostid="261" sizebytes="116640"></div><p>DePasquale is a principal science visuals developer at the Space Telescope Science Institute. He processed some of the very first Webb images that the public got to see.</p><p>While working on an image, DePasquale gradually unveils details that sometimes amaze him. For the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/most-striking-photos-from-james-webb-space-telescopes-first-100-days">Deep Field image</a>, one of Webb's first images, he was astonished to see tiny dots around some galaxies at the center. These dots are globular clusters of stars that surround very distant galaxies.</p><p>"To be able to pull out that much detail in just this tiny part of the sky — seeing that in such clarity was amazing," DePasquale said.</p><h2 id="c94bc605-a7ae-4ece-b9a1-d14aedb28a3b">Unprecedented detail</h2><div type="image" title="James Webb Space Telescope" height="1363" width="2048" msid="111697412" hostid="261" sizebytes="181522"></div><p>After <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-james-webb-space-telescope-jwst-launch-date-october-2021-2020-7">Webb launched in 2021</a>, the next few months were "nail-biting," DePasquale said. Before the telescope could begin photographing the farthest reaches of the cosmos, it had to unfold and fully deploy in space.</p><p>"We watched every step along the way — the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-james-webb-space-telescope-to-unfold-after-launch-2021-12">mirrors unfolding</a>, the sunshield deploying, all of these things happening. There were 300 different single points of failure where if anything didn't work, the whole observatory would just be scrapped," he said.</p><p>Webb deployed perfectly, and got to work <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-james-webb-space-telescope-best-images-2023">photographing our vast universe</a>. A single Webb photo, like the Deep Field image, can capture thousands of galaxies.</p><div type="image" title="Webb's first Deep Field image" height="2000" width="1960" msid="111697409" hostid="261" sizebytes="163048"></div><p>Pulling all that detail out of the raw Webb image was no easy task. The final photo is actually four different images stitched together. When DePasquale first lined them up, he noticed that the brightness was different in each panel. To get them to match, he had to use Photoshop to adjust the lighting of the panels by hand.</p><p>It took about two weeks to process the Deep Field image from start to finish, he said. The end result is a sparkling portrait of the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasas-webb-telescope-snaps-first-full-color-image-2022-7">galaxy cluster SMACS 0723.</a></p><h2 id="34d5aa0e-b046-4cd3-bd93-00a9b728e227">Peering across the universe</h2><div type="image" title="Tarantula nebula" height="1157" width="2000" msid="111697408" hostid="261" sizebytes="237844"></div><p>Webb is the most powerful telescope ever launched into space. It can see what the universe looked like around a quarter of a billion years after <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/james-webb-space-telescope-spots-most-distant-supermassive-black-hole-2023-7">the Big Bang</a>, when the first stars and galaxies started to form.</p><p>In its last two years of observations, Webb has fundamentally changed our understanding of the universe with <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-james-webb-space-telescope-3-galaxies-spotted-early-universe-2024-5">groundbreaking discoveries</a> like capturing the first images of stars forming inside the Pillars of Creation and the four most distant galaxies ever observed.</p><div type="image" title="pillars of creation towering clouds of dust two pictures side by side left is hubble's version faint dusty colors right is webb's version with way more stars and darker blue backdrop" height="1500" width="3105" msid="111697407" hostid="261" sizebytes="566852"></div><p>"Both Hubble and Webb are extremely high-angular-resolution telescopes. They're able to resolve very small details in these really distant objects," like the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/james-webb-space-telescope-captures-new-stars-in-tarantula-nebula-2022-9">Tarantula Nebula</a>, DePasquale told Business Insider.</p><p>The Tarantula Nebula is a star-forming cloud of gas and dust located in the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-milky-way-may-collide-with-another-galaxy-sooner-than-expected-2019-1">Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy</a>, 170,000 light-years away from Earth. That's really far away, but the extremely high precision of Webb's huge mirror allows the telescope to collect a lot of light from any object it observes, so it can photograph distant objects in striking detail, DePasquale said.</p><div type="image" title="A collage of images that shows the process of processing JWST's Tarantula Nebula image." height="1709" width="1472" msid="111697413" hostid="261" sizebytes="117772"></div><p>Processing raw space images is both a science and an art. </p><p>When processing the Tarantula Nebula image, DePasquale wanted to emphasize the cluster of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/space-new-telescope-image-shows-cone-nebula-in-stunning-detail-2022-11">hot, young stars</a> in the center. To do that, he enhanced the contrast between the light and dark parts of the image, and made the billowing clouds of the nebula glow in whites and made the young stars burn bright blue. He does a lot of this work by hand, manipulating the images using Photoshop.</p><p>"Our work transitions from being analytical and scientific into a more subjective realm, where it's more like a photographer. We make scientifically-informed aesthetic judgments about how to process the data to highlight <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jwst-captures-oldest-strand-cosmic-web-linking-galaxies-2023-7">key scientific features</a> within it," he said.</p>

A James Webb Telescope scientist explains what it's like to create the most beautiful space images of our time 

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/airmanmagazine/sets/72157638517123276/with/11340384865/">U.S. Air Force</a></span></p><p class="caption">Senior Airman Justin Gordon completes a static line jump at Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, July 26, 2013.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>The Air Force has over the past few years grappled with operational demands that have drained its resources and strained its personnel.</p><p>Wars in the Middle East, ongoing tensions in Europe and Asia, and budgetary issues are a few of the issues that confront a leaner Air Force.</p><p>In recent months, the service, which celebrates <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/us-air-force-69th-birthday-photos-2016-9" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">its 70th birthday</a> on Monday, is looking at personnel and administrative shakeups to streamline the way it recruits, trains, and deploys.</p><p><span>"We are a service that is too small for what's being asked of us," Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson <a href="http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2017/09/18/air-force-secretary-we-are-a-service-that-is-too-small/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">told</a> Air Force Times at the end of August. </span></p><p><span>"We have readiness issues at home already, and if we were to have to continue next year, either on a continuing resolution that [keeps Air Force funding] flat from last year or, even worse, under a sequester … it would be devastating, and [it would take] years to recover from it," she added.</span></p><p><span>According to the Government Accountability Office, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/defense-department-and-armed-forces-lack-of-readiness-2017-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">less than 50%</a> of the Air Force's units were at acceptable readiness levels. The highest-profile personnel issue facing the service may be its shortage of qualified pilots. </span></p><p><span>While the Air Force expanded its ranks during the 2016 fiscal year, as of April 2017 <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/air-forces-quiet-crisis-creating-pilot-and-manpower-shortage-2017-8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">it was still short</a> of its mandated 20,300 pilots by 1,555 - 950 of whom are believed to be fighter pilots. It also reported a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/defense-department-and-armed-forces-lack-of-readiness-2017-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">shortage</a> of 3,400 aircraft maintainers.</span></p><p><span>Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein and and Wilson's predecessor, Deborah Lee James, called the shortfall a "<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/air-forces-quiet-crisis-creating-pilot-and-manpower-shortage-2017-8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">quiet crisis</a>" in July 2016. </span></p><p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>US Air Force/Osakabe Yasuo</span></p><p class="caption">Capt. Thomas Bernard, a 36th Airlift Squadron C-130 Hercules pilot, performs a visual confirmation with night-vision goggles during a training mission over the Kanto Plain, Japan, October 14, 2015.</p></div><p></p></div></div></span></p><p><span>To reverse that trend and keep pilots in uniform, the service plans top <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/air-force-pay-pilots-bonus-incentives-to-stay-in-uniform-2017-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">boost</a> pay and bonuses, ask <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/air-force-asking-retired-pilots-back-for-a-year-to-fix-pilot-shortage-2017-8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">retired pilots to return</a> and bring more <a href="http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2017/09/18/air-force-secretary-we-are-a-service-that-is-too-small/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">support staff</a> to free fliers from administrative duties, increase the number of <a href="http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2017/09/18/air-force-secretary-we-are-a-service-that-is-too-small/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">pilots it trains</a> each year, and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-air-force-is-getting-creative-to-tackle-its-pilot-shortage-2017-7" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">give</a> personnel <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/air-force-is-going-to-let-pilots-and-crews-pick-their-own-base-2017-9" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">more say</a> in their rotations.</span></p><p><span>The Air Force is also outsourcing some of its "<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/air-force-pilots-shortage-leading-to-red-team-adversary-outsourcing-2017-8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">red air</a>" needs by bringing in outside pilots to play the role of rival aircraft. It is also <a href="https://defensesystems.com/articles/2017/09/14/air-force-qf16.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">converting</a> mothballed F-16s into training aircraft for manned and unmanned exercises.</span></p><p><span>But pilots are not the only Air Force members who find themselves taxed by a high operational tempo. </span></p><p><span>Air Force Special Operations Command has borne the brunt of 16 years of military operations. </span><span>About 1,200 AFSOC personnel are deployed to over 40 countries at any given time, AFSOC commander Lt. Gen. Brad Webb <a href="http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2017/09/17/three-star-afsoc-getting-job-done-despite-unprecedented-deployment-rate/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">told</a> Air Force Times. With only 14,461 active-duty officers and airmen in the the command, the scale of those deployments "can obviously create demands on them and their families," Webb said.</span></p><p><span>"We have many airmen who have deployed more than a dozen times in the last 15 years. That's a deployment rate our nation has not seen before," Webb <a href="http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2017/09/17/three-star-afsoc-getting-job-done-despite-unprecedented-deployment-rate/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">said</a>, noting that his command has had to get waivers from the secretary of <keyword id="6354810" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="defense">defense</keyword> to allow more frequent deployments.</span></p><p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>US Air Force photo/Senior Airman John Linzmeier</span></p><p class="caption">Airmen from the 320th Special Tactics Squadron gather around their team lead outside a shoot house as he discusses details of an upcoming mission November 19, 2015, at Camp Hansen, Japan.</p></div><p></p></div></div></span></p><p><span>For regular airmen, demand is high as well. The pace of deployments was high in 2017 and is expect to remain the same in years to come.</span></p><p><span>"We can anticipate that the thickness of the training events and exercises that occurred in 2017 will be equally as thick in 2018, and we think those numbers of events are just about right," Gen. Tod Wolters, head of US Air Forces Europe-Air Forces Africa, <a href="http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2017/09/18/airmen-remain-in-high-demand-in-europe/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">said</a> on September 8.</span></p><p><span>The more than 30,000 Air Force personnel in Europe now are enough to meet the service's needs, Wolters <a href="http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2017/09/18/airmen-remain-in-high-demand-in-europe/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">said</a>. Despite concerns about pilot shortages and the amount of downtime, he added, "We certainly have the right number of airmen in theater at this time, when you take into account the ones we rotate in on an episodic, periodic basis."</span></p><p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/airmanmagazine/sets/72157638517123276/with/11340384865/">U.S. Air Force</a></span></p><p class="caption">Staff Sgt. Kevin Colon removes exhaust covers from a B-1B Lancer at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, May 21, 2013.</p></div><p></p></div></div></span></p><p><span>The Air Force is also looking to fill gaps in its ranks of officers and enlisted personnel through promotions.</span></p><p><span>This month, it said <a href="https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2017/09/14/air-force-selects-2001-enlisted-airmen-for-supplemental-promotion" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">2,001 enlisted airmen</a> had been picked for supplemental promotions, which are typically given to airmen who face extended temporary duty assignments or are deployed to work on contingency operations.</span></p><p><span>In December, the Air Force will also offer 100% promotion opportunities to officers at captain rank. </span></p><p><span>As long as they're qualified, recommended for promotion, and have an unblemished conduct record, the promotion is <a href="https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2017/09/15/beginning-in-december-major-promotions-for-all" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">assured</a>.</span></p><p><span>The sweeping promotion opportunity comes in response to mission demands requiring more field-grade officers, which includes majors, lieutenant colonels, and colonels. The Air Force is currently at <a href="http://www.afpc.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/1309786/air-force-announces-100-percent-promotion-opportunity-to-major/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">92% manning</a> for field-grade officers and 74% manning for non-rated field-grade officers, who <a href="http://www.afoqtscores.com/2017/04/09/rated-vs-non-rated/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">typically fill</a> support roles.</span></p><p><span>"There have been no major changes to the Officer Evaluation System in nearly 30 years, but there have been significant changes to our force composition, mission, requirements and how our performance system reflects what we value in officers," Lt. Gen. Gina Grosso, Air Force deputy chief of staff for manpower, personnel, and services, <a href="http://www.afpc.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/1309786/air-force-announces-100-percent-promotion-opportunity-to-major/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">said in a release</a> announcing the promotion opportunity.</span></p><p><span>Those promotions come as the service is also reviewing and implementing other changes meant to adjust the administrative burden faced by airmen, as well as the strain service puts on their personal life.</span></p><p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Timothy Moore/US Air Force</span></p><p class="caption">Members of the US Air Forces in Europe Band perform during the Fasching parade February 17, 2015, in Ramstein-Miesenbach, Germany.</p></div><p></p></div></div></span></p><p><span>"We strive across the command to encourage our airmen to achieve work-life balance," <a href="http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2017/09/17/three-star-afsoc-getting-job-done-despite-unprecedented-deployment-rate/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">said</a> Webb, the head of Air Force Special Operations Command. "Air commandos are proud of what we continue to accomplish alongside our joint [special operations] partners, but we also know the importance of resiliency."</span></p><p><span>US airmen "are doing some amazing things," Chief Master Sgt. Kaleth Wright, the Air Force's top enlisted man, <a href="http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2017/09/17/air-forces-top-enlisted-looks-for-solutions-to-the-frustration-and-stress-many-airmen-feel/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">told</a> Air Force Times. But they're also dealing with manpower shortages, a lack of funding and resources, a high operational burden, and a plethora of extra duties, all of which has inspired frustration and stress.</span></p><p><span>"We can't ask the world to calm down and not be so unstable," Wright added. "Absent that, the best thing we can do to make our force more efficient and more effective and lethal is, with some of these additional requirements that we've levied upon them over the years, let's slowly take them away, right?"</span></p><p><span>Wright said the Air Force is weighing the elimination with some performance evaluations and some units have pursued programs to improve mental health and resiliency. The Air Force has <a href="http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2017/09/17/air-forces-top-enlisted-looks-for-solutions-to-the-frustration-and-stress-many-airmen-feel/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">lost 62 airmen</a> to suicide this year and looks set to match the 100 suicides seen in most years.</span></p><p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>US Air Force/Staff Sgt. Richard Ebensberger</span></p><p class="caption">B-1B Lancer pilots Maj. James Silva and Lt. Col. Steven Myers complete a flight in the first newly upgraded operational B1-B Lancer at Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, January 21, 2014.</p></div><p></p></div></div></span></p><p><span>In addition to mental-health and professional-development initiatives, Grosso <a href="http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2017/09/17/the-air-force-is-working-to-overhaul-its-personnel-systems-officer-evals/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">said</a> the Air Force has started a broad overhaul of its personnel information technology systems.</span></p><p><span>The service's personnel operations run on <a href="http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2017/09/17/the-air-force-is-working-to-overhaul-its-personnel-systems-officer-evals/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">200 applications</a> using 111 different systems that date to the 1990s. Streamlining those operations will ease the manner in which airmen can handle personnel issues, like problems with paychecks that roughly 5,000 airmen deal with each month.</span></p><p><span>Grosso also said the service was looking at a two- to three-year overhaul of its performance management and evaluation systems.</span></p><p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>US Air Force/Staff Sgt. Christopher Hummel</span></p><p class="caption">Senior Airman John Fleetwood inspects an augmenter flame-holder and spray-rings during an engine tear down.</p></div><p></p></div></div></span></p><p><span>"We're not trying to speed through this," Grosso <a href="http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2017/09/17/the-air-force-is-working-to-overhaul-its-personnel-systems-officer-evals/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">told</a> Air Force Times this month. "We need to get this right."</span></p><p><span>The operational demands the Air Force faces look unlikely to ease in the near future. Despite a series of victories against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, partner forces there will need support going forward. </span></p><p><span>That, coupled with the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-new-afghanistan-policy-may-mean-more-air-force-operations-2017-9" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">potential expansion</a> of Air Force duties in Afghanistan, will come as the US military faces heightened tensions in Eastern Europe and northwest Asia.</span></p><p><span>"Owning the ultimate high ground is continually going to be important as we go forward," Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein <a href="https://www.defensenews.com/news/your-air-force/2017/09/18/on-the-air-forces-70th-birthday-its-chief-uses-the-past-to-guide-the-future/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">told</a> Defense News. </span></p><p><span>"Air superiority is not an American birth right. It's actually something we have to plan for, train for, fight for and win," he added. "I see it as nothing short of a moral obligation that when any soldier or airman hears a jet noise overhead, they don't look up. They know it's us."</span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/science-how-airplanes-fly-mid-air-aviation-2017-8">How massive airplanes take off and stay in midair</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

'We are a service that is too small': The Air Force is under strain and looking at some major shakeups

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Maarten Bosma, an ex-Google Brain engineer, said in a tweet that Alphabet isn't taking AI seriously.</li><li>Bosma's tweet comes after Google demoed its latest AI tools in Paris, including ChatGPT rival Bard.</li></ul><p>Earlier this week, Google demoed its new AI tools to the public for the first time, but some AI professionals weren't impressed. </p><p>Maarten Bosma, <a href="https://affiliate.insider.com?postID=63e508f52001446d1d78b574&amp;site=bi&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fin%2Fmaartenbosma%2F" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a former research engineer at Google Brain</a>, Alphabet's AI division, replied to a tweet thread discussing his former employer's presentation with his thoughts on what it signals for company's AI journey. </p><p>"I think the Google presentation signaled (rightfully or wrongly) that they are not really taking it seriously," <a href="https://twitter.com/MaartenBosma/status/1623588963138306049" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bosma tweeted</a>.</p><p>He pointed to the fact that Google's demo of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-bard-google-ai-chatbot-gpt-rival">Bard, its rival to ChatGPT</a>  "was less than 5 minutes" and was presented along with other new tools, such as an updated <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/new-ai-google-maps-help-ev-electric-car-quickly-charge-2023-2">Google Maps</a> and <a href="https://www.techradar.com/news/new-google-lens-feature-will-let-android-users-literally-search-their-screen" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Google Lens.</a> </p><p>He also noted that the conference "was in Paris instead of HQ" and that the "CEO wasn't there." While Google didn't immediately roll out its AI chatbot, "Bing, on the other hand, changed the homepage" to include it, he added. </p><p>Bosma, who left Google in April 2022 after six years, <a href="https://affiliate.insider.com?postID=63e508f52001446d1d78b574&amp;site=bi&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fin%2Fmaartenbosma%2F" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener sponsored">per his LinkedIn</a>, did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment before publication. Nor did Google.</p><p>Bosma's tweet comes as the AI wars in Big Tech have started to heat up, with companies like Alphabet and Microsoft  working to develop powerful conversational chatbots.</p><p>Microsoft, which has partnered with ChatGPT's creator OpenAI, announced its latest AI-powered search engine —  <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/new-microsoft-bing-openai-more-powerful-chatgpt-2023-2">the "new Bing"</a> — in a surprise press conference Tuesday, just a day after <a href="https://blog.google/technology/ai/bard-google-ai-search-updates/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Google broke the news</a> that it is developing its own AI chatbot called Bard. The chatbot will be used to enhance its Google Search engine after the company issued a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-management-issues-code-red-over-chatgpt-report-2022-12">"code red."</a></p><p>Bosma isn't the only one to critique Google's approach to AI.</p><p>"The event was, frankly, bad," analyst Ben Thompson wrote about Google's presentation in <a href="https://stratechery.com/2023/google-and-microsofts-events-monetizable-panic-paradigms-and-hardware/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a blog post</a>, adding that the "vast majority" of what was presented "was a rehash" of what was shown at past Google events. </p><p>Viewers of the presentation were also quick to notice that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-ad-ai-chatgpt-rival-bard-gives-inaccurate-answer-2023-2">Google's ad for Bard contained an error</a> in which the experimental chatbot incorrectly answered a question about the James Webb Space Telescope. </p><p>But some were puzzled about the immediate backlash against Google</p><p>Gary Marcus, a former professor of neural science at New York University and a self-proclaimed AI skeptic, <a href="https://garymarcus.substack.com/p/oops-how-google-bombed-while-doing?r=lbxf3&amp;utm_medium=ios&amp;utm_campaign=post" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pointed out in a Substack post </a>that even though Microsoft and Google's AI tools are both at similar stages of deployment and contain flaws, "they are being treated as polar opposites." </p><p>Microsoft' demo "was presented as a revolution," while Google's demo was presented as a "disaster," Marcus wrote.</p><p>The company has said that Bard will be released to the public <a href="https://blog.google/technology/ai/bard-google-ai-search-updates/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">in a few weeks</a> after more tests are done. </p><p>That's when the real battle will begin. </p>

Ex-Google engineer said his former employer isn't taking AI seriously after demoing its new tools in Paris

<ul class="summary-list"><li>In August 2019, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. <keyword id="1633115" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="David-Berger">David Berger</keyword> published his Commandant's Planning Guidance, detailing a dramatic shift in the Marine Corps' force structure.</li><li>It positions the Marines to take on <keyword id="1334" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="China">China</keyword>, but it also makes a subversive proposal to take on a sophisticated rival with cheaper capabilities than what the other branches are pursuing.</li></ul><p>US Marine officers are notoriously dismissive of those who talk about strategy. "Strategy?" a Marine who served in Vietnam says. "Here was our strategy: hey-diddle-diddle, straight-up-the-middle."</p><p>The description rings true: The Marine Corps' most famous fights were straight-ahead affairs that gave the Corps its most celebrated moments: at Belleau Wood (in World War I), at Tarawa, Iwo Jima and Okinawa (in World War II), at Inchon (during Korea), at Hue (in Vietnam) and, most recently during the battles for Fallujah, back in 2004. Now, it seems, all of that is changing.</p><p>In August of last year, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger published his Commandant's Planning Guidance, a detailed recasting of the Marine Corps' force structure.</p><p>By any measure, Berger's guidance marked a breathtaking shift away from the service's urban combat focus and its follow-on mandate of "countering violent extremists in the Middle East" to a "great power/peer level competition, with special emphasis on the Indo Pacific…"</p><div type="image" title="US Marine Corps Marines amphibious assault KAMANDAG Philippines" height="933" width="1400" msid="78864292" hostid="261"></div><p><a href="https://mca-marines.org/call-to-action-commandants-planning-guidance/">The shift, Berger admits, is sweeping</a>: "from inland to littoral, and from non-state actor to peer competitor." The guidance reduces tank companies (from 7 to 0), artillery batteries (from 21 to 5), infantry battalions (from 24 to 21), amphibious vehicle companies (from 6 to 4), helicopter attack squadrons (from 7 to 5), and the number of F-35Bs in its air squadrons.</p><p>The guidance eliminates law enforcement battalions and bridging companies. And the force itself will be cut by some 12,000 personnel over a period of 10 years. More simply: Berger's guidance ("to be clear, it's not really a new strategy," <a href="https://warontherocks.com/2019/12/notes-on-designing-the-marine-corps-of-the-future/">one senior Marine officer notes</a>, "it's more like a new operational concept") cuts structure in favor of adopting "long range precision fires, advanced reconnaissance capabilities, unmanned systems and resilient networks."</p><p>The shift is here to stay: Berger clamped a non-disclosure requirement on participants in the wargames that led to the rethinking and, just last week, <a href="https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2020/10/08/corps-cancels-dense-urban-warfare-experiment-to-focus-on-marine-littoral-regiment/">cancelled</a> the "Metropolis II" exercise testing tactics the Marines would adopt to fight in cities. Instead, the service <a href="https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2020/09/22/corps-to-begin-3-year-marine-littoral-regiment-experiment-using-hawaii-marines/">will focus on building a new Marine Littoral Regiment (an MLR)</a> that would allow it to operate on small atolls and islands against a projected threat in the Pacific — read: China.</p><p>Berger's new MLR is billed as "dispersed, agile and constantly relocating" (a combat team, a logistics element and an anti-air battalion), and delivered to the battleground by a <a href="https://news.usni.org/2020/02/20/navy-researching-new-class-of-medium-amphibious-ship-new-logistics-ships">yet-to-be-designed class of amphibious ships</a>. Dispersed and agile? For Berger's critics, the MLR looks more like a Navy landing party (of some 1800 swabees) than an all-arms 3600 trooper Marine regiment of hardcore fighters. Berger would almost certainly reject the claim, but his guidance ties his service more closely to the Navy than it has been since the Marines landed on Guadalcanal.</p><p>"During World War II, we as a Service, clearly understood that Marines operated in support of the Navy's sea control mission," the guidance argues. "In subsequent years, the luxury of presumptive maritime superiority deluded us into thinking the Navy existed to support 'Marine' operations ashore. That era was a historic anomaly, and we need to re-focus on how we will fulfill our mandate to support the fleet."</p><div type="image" title="USMC assault amphibious vehicle" height="3616" width="5424" msid="78864293" hostid="261"></div><p>Berger's guidance earned initial praise, even from would-be detractors ("it's one of the most well-written documents to come out of the Pentagon in a long while," a US Army force planner admitted), as well as a host of respected military thinkers, including Dr. James Lacey, a former US infantry officer and director for War, Policy, and Strategy at the Marine Corps War College. "I think Berger has boldly taken the Corps in a direction it must go as we reenter a period of great state competition," he wrote in an email.</p><p>More crucially, Chris Brose, the former staff director of the Senate Armed Services Committee — whose questions to the services in 2018 helped to fuel Berger's thinking — <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-marines-have-set-the-bar-for-reform-can-the-rest-of-the-military-follow/2019/08/08/21b47d5e-ba1c-11e9-b3b4-2bb69e8c4e39_story.html">told columnist David Ignatius</a> that the new Marine guidance "looks reality in the face and says we've got to make changes. He doesn't hedge, he doesn't fudge. He makes choices. He's thrown down the gauntlet for the other services."</p><p>Not everyone agrees. An early and outspoken critic of Berger was James Webb, a former Marine Corps officer, Vietnam veteran and secretary of the Navy.</p><p>For Webb, the Berger guidance reads like a pointy-headed powerpoint presentation cooked up by draft dodging Marine Corps wannabes: "Interestingly, when citing his philosophical inspiration at the outset of his proposal, General Berger chose to ignore two centuries of innovation and ground-breaking role models who guided the Marine Corps through some of its most difficult challenges," Webb wrote in a much-circulated article in The National Interest. "The giants of the past — John LeJeune, Arthur Vandegrift, Clifton Cates, Robert Barrow and Al Gray, just for starters — were passed over, in favor of a quote from a professor at the Harvard Business School who never served. Many Marines, past and present, <a href="https://nationalinterest.org/feature/future-us-marine-corps-152606">view this gesture as a symbolic putdown</a> of the Corps' respected leadership methods and the historic results they have obtained."</p><p>Webb's critique is echoed by other experts, including Dr. Williamson "Wick" Murray, one of the nation's most respected defense thinkers.</p><p>"The Marines are the most intellectual of all services," Murray told me in an extensive telephone interview, "so I'm a little surprised that the guidance leaves so many unanswered questions. It goes too far in stripping out capabilities, lacks important details on how these capabilities will be replaced and doesn't provide strategic solutions to strategic challenges. This guidance needs to be more nuanced and more flexible. It's not. It puts everything on the table for countering China, but if history teaches us anything it's that the enemy you get is rarely the one you plan for."</p><p>Murray also notes the unease that greeted the guidance from the US Navy. "The big assumption here is that the Navy wants to cooperate, that it'll be a willing partner. Maybe: but its yet to be seen whether they're capable of taking this on."</p><p>A senior US Navy strategist, speaking on background because of the sensitivity of the topic, agrees: "The Navy has largely ignored strategy and focused on what to buy and how to buy it, then figuring out how to use what they have." Which is to say that the Navy leadership seems strangely out of touch with what Berger is doing — a kind of hey-diddle-diddle-let's-buy-more-ships focus that retains its legacy platforms (Berger dubs them "large ships" — like aircraft carriers — "with large electronic, acoustic, or optical signatures") at the same time that the Marines are shedding theirs.</p><div type="image" title="Marine Corps commandant David Berger" height="933" width="1400" msid="78864294" hostid="261"></div><p>That the Navy seems relatively clueless is something of a surprise, since the Navy that was one of the first services to pivot to Asia.</p><p>In 2010, Adm. Gary Roughead, the chief of naval operations, and Gen. Norton Schwartz, the head of the Air Force, signed a classified memorandum directing their services to develop "AirSea Battle" — a new operational concept designed to overcome China's development of anti-access and area denial weapons. The idea was to find ways to preserve the US military's access to the Western Pacific.</p><p>"The Air Force and Navy arrived, almost simultaneously, at the same 'aha' moment," defense intellectual and Navy expert Bryan McGrath told me in 2015. "They saw that there was a power rising that could challenge what each of them do best. For the Navy, that's power projection — and for the Air Force, that's air power. And for decades, neither of those battle spaces was in jeopardy. But suddenly, with what China was doing, that was no longer true. Suddenly, there was a power in the Pacific that was going to challenge the way they fight."</p><p>Retired US Army Colonel Kevin Benson, one of his service's premier thinkers, puts it this way: "Close combat is a thing of the past," he says. "If the enemy knows where you are, he can kill you. We live in an era of hypersonic weapons and satellite-linked units. So you have to get under that umbrella, you have to look for a seam in his defenses, or you have to create one. You have to put more fire on the bad guy faster than he can respond. Berger's guidance is incomplete, but that's what he's trying to do."</p><p>Berger's thinking reflects this reality. "The rapid expansion of China's area-denial capabilities, coupled with its pivot to the sea . . . have fundamentally transformed the environment in which the U.S. military will operate for the foreseeable future," Berger wrote in an article in War on the Rocks last December. "For the first time in a generation, sea control is no longer the unquestioned prerogative of the United States."</p><p>To counter this,<a href="https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2020/01/29/new-corps-formation-marine-littoral-regiment-may-be-how-the-corps-fights-future-battles/"> the Marines will deploy</a> "low cost, lethal air and ground unmanned platforms, unmanned long range surface and subsurface vehicles, mobile, rapidly deployable rocket systems, long range precision fires, loitering munitions… mobile air defense and counter-precision guided munitions capabilities, signature management, electronic warfare and expeditionary airfields."</p><div type="image" title="Marine Corps RQ-21 Australia" height="1666" width="2500" msid="78864295" hostid="261"></div><p>But while Berger's focus is on China, some Pentagon officials suspect that other realities are driving his thinking.</p><p>Berger says as much one-third of the way through his guidance: "The principle challenge facing the Marine Corps today," he writes, "lies in continuing to fulfill its charter as the naval expeditionary force-in-readiness, while simultaneously modernizing the force … with potentially fewer Marines, and a possible reduction in total resources." Berger makes it clear that he's willing to "secure additional modernization dollars in exchange for force structure …" — another way of saying that the Marines are willing to live with fewer numbers so long as they get new weapons.</p><p>In truth, the Marines may not have a choice: Pentagon officials concede that the services are entering an era of flatline or even plunging budget authorizations at the same time that they're having difficulty signing up and retaining new recruits. It's easy to say you're going to have fewer Marines when no one is showing up at your recruiting stations. Among Berger's critics are those who discuss his ideas while giving a wink-wink at this reality: The enemy the Marines are fighting isn't China, they say, it's the defense budget.</p><p>But suggesting that it's the budget, and not China, that is behind Berger's thinking brings often angry responses from those paid to think about naval strategy.</p><p>"Usually when budgets flatline, services become conservative and double down on what they consider to be their 'core,'" the senior naval strategist to whom I spoke, says. "That's doesn't seem to be what the Marines are doing here ... This is really just the Marines figuring out how to do their job."</p><p>Finally, the guidance's most outspoken critics, including one senior Marine who served in Afghanistan, point out that Berger plans to fight China with "units yet to be formed, transported on amphibious ships yet to be built, linked by networks yet to be developed and armed with anti-missile capabilities yet to be tested."</p><p>The rejoinder from the Navy strategy expert with whom I spoke is pointed: "Does a lack of completed technology mean that you don't start pushing forward? The Marines worked on amphibious doctrine before the Higgins Boat was done [in World War II] and worked on helicopter doctrine way before they had helos with the range and capacity to actually do it. Working on the technology hasn't stopped the Marines before."</p><div type="image" title="Marine Corps Marines" height="1667" width="2500" msid="78864296" hostid="261"></div><p>Of course, there is also an unstated agenda here, as any number of Berger critics note.</p><p>The new guidance positions the Marines as the lead service for the emergent and increasingly empowered China-is-the-enemy lobby. And while that view is far from an accepted fact, the guidance will help sell it. Or, to paraphrase one Asia expert: If you treat China like an enemy, and name them as an enemy, you're going to get what you ask for.</p><p>It's a smart move for Berger and his service, but it's also transparent — and cynical: In an era of flatlining or eroding budget numbers, the Marines can not only claim to be "the first to fight"; they can claim to be the first in line to get the anti-China defense dollars. Which, presumably, is exactly where Berger wants them to be.</p><p>If there is a bottom line here, it is that while Berger partisans argue that his guidance is "visionary, disruptive and transformational," his detractors use the same adjectives to highlight its weaknesses: It's too visionary, <a href="https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/29608/marine-bosss-audacious-plan-to-transform-the-corps-by-giving-up-big-amphibious-ships">too disruptive and too transformational</a>.</p><p>But it's also "subversive," as the Marine veteran of Afghanistan told me. "If Berger is right, if it's possible to do better with less, than why can't the Army, Navy and Air Force do the same?" he asks. "If Berger's planning guidance is the wave of the future, then why are the Army, Navy and Air Force stuck in the past?"</p><p>Which suggests other, yet to be answered, questions: If aircraft carriers and other "expensive and exquisite capabilities" (as Berger describes them) are vulnerable, then why do we continue to build and deploy them?</p><p>"The Navy, especially, needs to provide answers," this Marine says, "and the last time I checked, Berger's office was on the same corridor as the chief of naval operations. So if he really wants to know what the Navy thinks, all he has to do is walk down the hall and ask."</p>

The Marines Corps is rolling out a 'subversive' new strategy to take on China

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Generative AI is becoming increasingly omnipresent  — and is a growing hot topic.</li><li>Chatbots such as OpenAI's ChatGPT are changing the way we find information, generate images, and more.</li></ul><p>It's becoming increasingly impossible to ignore AI in our everyday lives.</p><p>Since <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-chat-gpt-2023-1">OpenAI released ChatGPT</a> in late 2022, people have gotten used to using the chatbot in many ways. Workers are turning to AI to automate tasks, while others are using the technology to make improvements to their personal lives.</p><p>And as AI continues to advance, there may be a greater need for everyone to understand what it is and how it may affect us.</p><p>Here's a list of the people, companies, and terms you need to know to talk about AI, in alphabetical order.</p><h2 id="59d56177-f64b-4777-8148-033de199cb87">The top AI leaders and companies</h2><p><strong>Sam Altman:</strong> The cofounder and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-altman-chatgpt-openai-ceo-career-net-worth-ycombinator-prepper-2023-1">CEO of OpenAI</a>, the company behind ChatGPT. In November, Altman was ousted by OpenAI's board before returning to the company as CEO days later.</p><p><strong>Dario Amodei:</strong> The CEO and cofounder of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/anthropic-new-crowd-sourced-ai-constitution-accuracy-safety-toxic-racist-2023-10">Anthropic</a>, a major rival to OpenAI, where he previously worked. The AI startup is behind an AI chatbot called Claude 2. Google and Amazon are investors in Anthropic.</p><p><strong>Demis Hassabis:</strong> The cofounder of DeepMind and now CEO of Google DeepMind, Hassabis leads its AI efforts at Alphabet.</p><p><strong>Jensen Huang:</strong> The <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nvidia-jensen-huang-chipmaker-cofounder-ceo-wealth-net-worth-ai-2023-5">CEO and cofounder of Nvidia</a>, the tech giant behind the specialized chips companies use to power their AI technology.</p><p><strong>Satya Nadella:</strong> The CEO of Microsoft, the software giant behind the Bing AI-powered search engine and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-copilot-ai-powered-assistant-admin-emails-powerpoint-2023-11">Copilot</a>, a suite of generative AI tools. Microsoft is also an investor in OpenAI.</p><p><strong>Mustafa Suleyman:</strong> The cofounder of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-deepmind-cofounder-mustafa-suleyman-everyone-will-have-ai-assistant-2023-9">DeepMind</a>, Google's AI division, who left the company in 2022. He cofounded Inflection AI, before he <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-ai-ceo-mustafa-suleyman-london-hub-2024-4">joined Microsoft</a> as its chief of AI in March 2024. <br /><br /></p><h2 id="9531a025-862a-4346-8e82-06f4ee1ae26b">The AI terms you need to know</h2><p><strong>AGI:</strong> "Artificial general intelligence," or the ability for artificial intelligence to perform complex cognitive tasks such as displaying self-awareness and critical thinking the way humans do.</p><p><strong>Alignment: </strong>A field of AI safety research that aims to ensure that the goals, decisions, and behaviors of AI systems are consistent with human values and intentions. In July 2023 OpenAI announced a "<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-openai-chatgpt-tackle-superintelligence-human-extinction-sam-altman-2023-7">Superalignment</a>" to focus on making its AI safe. That team was later disbanded and in May the company set up a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/openai-sets-up-safety-committee-starts-training-next-frontier-model-2024-5">safety and security committee</a> to advise the board on "critical safety and security decisions."</p><p><strong>Compute: </strong>The AI computing resources needed to train models and carry out tasks, including processing data. This can include GPUs, servers, and cloud services.</p><p><strong>Deepfake: </strong>An AI-generated image, video, or voice meant to appear real which tends to be used to deceive viewers or listeners. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/tech/what-is-deepfake#how-are-deepfakes-used?">Deepfakes</a> have been used to create non-consensual pornography and extort people for money.</p><p><strong>Effective altruists: </strong>Broadly speaking, this is a social movement which stakes its claim in the idea that all lives are equally valuable and those with resources should allocate them to helping as many as possible. And in the context of AI, effective altruists (EAs) are interested in how AI can be safely deployed to reduce suffering caused by social ills like climate change and poverty. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/effective-altruism-how-started-how-its-going-after-ftx-collapse-2023-1">Business leaders like Elon Musk, Sam Bankman-Fried</a>, and Peter Thiel identify as effective altruists. (See also: <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-sam-altman-openai-drama-ai-silicon-valley-debate-spotlight-2023-12">e/accs and decels</a>).</p><p><strong>GPU:</strong> A computer chip, short for graphic processing unit, that companies use to train and deploy their AI models. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nvidia-gpus-chips-ai-commodity-graphcore-alternative-2023-9">Nvidia's GPUs </a>are used by Microsoft and Meta to run their AI models.</p><p><strong>Hallucination: </strong>A phenomenon where a large language model (see below) generates inaccurate information that it presents as a fact. For example, during an early demo, Google's AI chatbot Bard hallucinated by generating a factual error about the James Webb Space Telescope.</p><p><strong>Large language model:</strong> A complex computer program designed to understand and generate human-like text. The model is trained on large amounts of data and produces answers by scraping information across the web. Examples of LLMs include OpenAI's GPT-4, Meta's Llama 2, and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-gemini-explainer-ai-model-2023-9">Google's Gemini</a>.</p><p><strong>Multimodal: </strong>The ability for AI models to process text, images, and audio to generate an output. Users of ChatGPT, for instance, can now write, speak, and upload images to the AI chatbot.</p><p><strong>Neural network:</strong> A machine learning program, also known as deep learning, designed to think and learn like a human brain. Facial recognition systems, for instance, are designed using neural networks in order to identify a person by analyzing their facial features.</p><p><strong>Open source: </strong>A trait used to describe a computer program that anyone can freely access, use, and modify without asking for permission. Some AI experts have called for models behind AI like ChatGPT to be open source so the public knows how exactly they are trained.</p><p><strong>Prompt engineering:</strong> The process of asking AI chatbots questions that can produce desired responses. As a profession, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/prompt-engineering-ai-chatgpt-jobs-explained-2023-3">prompt engineers</a> are experts in fine tuning AI models on the backend to improve outputs.</p><p><strong>Rationalists: </strong>People who believe that the most effective way to understand the world is through logic, reason, and scientific evidence. They draw conclusions by gathering evidence and critical thinking rather than following their personal feelings.</p><p>When it comes to AI, rationalists seek to answer questions like how AI can be smarter, how AI can solve complex problems, and how AI can better process information around risk. That stands in opposition to empiricists, who in the context of AI, may favor advancements in AI backed by observational data.</p><p><strong>Singularity:</strong> A hypothetical moment where artificial intelligence becomes so advanced that the technology surpasses human intelligence. Think of a science fiction scenario where an AI robot develops agency and takes over the world.<br /></p>

LLMs, GPUs, and hallucinations &mdash; what you need to know about AI

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/2020-election"></a></div></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li>Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts is running in the 2020 US presidential election.</li><li>Moulton, a former Marine Corps infantry officer and combat veteran, carried his military experience throughout his political career and hopes it will resonate with voters in the 2020 presidential election.</li><li>"I believe it's time for a new generation of leadership in our <keyword id="6358883" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="politics">politics</keyword>," Moulton said to INSIDER. "I believe we need a nominee for our party who can not only beat Donald Trump, but can bring the party and the country back together again once we do."</li><li><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit BusinessInsider.com for more stories.</a></strong></li></ul><h2>'A call to action'</h2><p>In 2013, Democrat Seth Moulton had a calling to serve on Capitol Hill.</p><p>After unseating Democratic Rep. John Tierney - an 18-year incumbent and a close ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi - in the Massachusetts 6th Congressional District <a href="http://electionstats.state.ma.us/elections/view/125587/">general election</a>, he went on to cement his seat when he ran <a href="http://electionstats.state.ma.us/elections/view/129276/">uncontested</a> in his district's primary election last year.</p><p>Now, the 40-year-old congressman is trying to bring his voice to the 2020 presidential debates as a Democratic candidate.</p><p>"I believe it's time for a new generation of leadership in our politics," Moulton said to INSIDER. "I believe we need a nominee for our party who can not only beat Donald Trump, but can bring the party and country back together again once we do."</p><p>But Moulton found a different calling before he began his political career.</p><p>Moulton said that as a college student in 2001, he was inspired to join the military through a quote adorned at Harvard University's church:</p><p style="padding-left: 40px;">"While a bright future beckoned, they freely gave their lives and fondest hopes for us and our allies, that we might learn from them courage in peace to spend our lives making a better world for others."</p><p>"It's not just a memorial - it's a call to action," Moulton said during a sermon at Harvard. "And to me that quote summarized what I learned in these pews: that it's not enough just to graduate here with some good ideas, some good beliefs."</p><p>"You ought to do something with it, and it ought to be something that benefits others, not just yourself," he added.</p><p>Moulton considered joining the Army but ultimately set his sights on the Marines. In the summer of 2001, he began his paperwork to earn the title of a Marine Corps infantry officer.</p><p>A few months later, the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-show-moment-president-bush-learned-of-911-attacks-2016-6">9/11 terrorist attacks</a> occurred. Moulton said he signed his military contract the following month.</p><p><em><strong>Read more</strong>: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/seth-moulton-las-vegas-shooting-moment-of-silence-gabby-giffords-2017-10">'Now is not the time for silence': Lawmaker calls for action after Las Vegas shooting</a></em></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div></p><p>Moulton went on to receive his commission and deployed four times in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom - a war he says, he fundamentally disagrees with and describes as "disastrously poor."</p><p>It was during the first firefight as an infantry platoon leader that he felt truly humbled and witnessed "first-hand how much responsibility I had."</p><p>Moulton fought in two <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/18/world/conflict-iraq-looking-back-8-day-battle-for-najaf-attack-stalemate.html">major</a> <a href="https://www.marines.mil/Portals/59/Publications/U.S.%20Marines%20in%20Battle_An-Nasiriyah%20%20PCN%2010600000700_1.pdf">battles</a> in the Iraq War and was awarded the Bronze Star and the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation medal with accompanying "V" devices for valor. His award citations <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/10/17/moulton-underplays-military-service/lY9FfmOrviwL2LAFHr61dO/story.html">reportedly</a> included "fearlessly [exposing] himself to enemy fire" after four of his Marines were wounded.</p><p>While there are plenty <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/18/nyregion/18blumenthal.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">examples</a> of lawmakers embellishing their military record, Moulton continues to underplay his service. During his initial bid for Congress, few people knew of his merit-based awards - including his parents and the majority of his campaign staff, according to The Boston Globe.</p><p>Moulton played down his service when asked about his portrait of a war hero: "My heroes are the Marines I've served with," Moulton said to INSIDER. "I just did what thousands of other veterans have done before and after me."</p><p>Following his military contract, Moulton has been an outspoken critic of the Iraq War and joined a bipartisan group of lawmakers to curb the broad funding for the wars against terrorism.</p><p>"While I believe that the war was a mistake, I don't regret doing what I could to serve our country by leading the 36 brave, young Marines in my platoon," Moulton said in a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGPrEGbhcEk">campaign video</a> in 2013. "I learned what service really means."</p><p><em><strong>Read more</strong>: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-show-moment-president-bush-learned-of-911-attacks-2016-6">Photos show moment President George W. Bush learned of 9/11 attacks</a></em></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div></p><h2><span>'It's time for the generation that fought in Iraq and Afghanistan to take over for the generation who sent us there'</span></h2><p>Moulton's ties to the military didn't end after the Marine Corps. He carried his experience to Capitol Hill and the House Armed Services Committee, where he believed Congress needed to fill its ranks with more military veterans.</p><p>He raised millions of dollars through the <a href="https://www.serveamericapac.com/leaders" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Serve America PAC</a>, his veteran-boosting political action committee. Between January 2017 and September 2018, the PAC raised $2 million and was the third-highest Democratic leadership fundraiser, according to <a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/massachusetts-playbook/2018/11/01/moultons-cash-flow-low-ad-buys-show-lack-of-action-incumbents-hold-cards-on-beacon-hill-337304" target="_blank" rel="noopener">POLITICO</a>.</p><p>Moulton's endorsement of "a new generation of leaders" paid off during the 2018 midterm elections. The candidates, many of whom have military or intelligence agency backgrounds, flipped House seats in states like <a href="https://pilotonline.com/news/government/nation/article_035dacc8-e12c-11e8-bc50-43b21c44fce9.html">Virginia</a>, <a href="https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Max-Rose-Wins-Staten-Island-Congressional-Seat-Upsets-Republican-Dan-Donovan-499892031.html">New York</a>, <a href="https://www.nj.com/news/2018/11/voters_decide_the_11th_congressional_district_race.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New Jersey</a>, and <a href="https://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/elections/chrissy-houlahan-greg-mccauley-pa-6-congressional-district-results-election-2018-20181106.html">Pennsylvania</a>.</p><p>"I think we need to give a voice to a new generation of leaders who are stepping up across the country," Moulton said. "We need more political leaders to put the country before political party. I think that's what Americans are looking for, and that's why you saw veterans do so well in the 2018 midterms."</p><p>"We want leaders that we can trust, we want leaders who are going to do the right thing for their country," Moulton added. "Those who have had experience doing that in the past, literally putting their lives on the line for America, know what public service means."</p><p><em><strong>Read more</strong>: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/roy-moore-transgender-military-lgbtq-vietnam-2017-12">Veterans unloaded on a Senate candidate's comments about military service</a></em></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div></p><h2>No better enemy, no worse friend</h2><p>As a congressman, Moulton considers President Donald Trump's tenure as commander-in-chief an embarrassment.</p><p>As a retired Marine, he considers it a personal insult.</p><p>"I'd love to be on the debate stage with Trump and ask him how his bone spurs are doing," <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/Dem-candidate-Seth-Moulton-visits-SF-says-Trump-13852746.php?psid=3rpwP">Moulton said</a>, referring to Trump's controversial <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-avoided-the-military-draft-which-was-common-at-the-time-vietnam-war-2018-12">bone spur diagnosis</a> that kept him from serving in the Vietnam War.</p><p>Moulton said he disagrees with Trump's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-repeats-false-statement-about-military-pay-raise-on-iraq-visit-2018-12">bold claims</a> of having done more to help the military than any previous president.</p><p>"He's not putting America first when he undermines our constitution and our values," Moulton said to INSIDER. "In fact, he keeps forgetting what America is all about."</p><p>Moulton deferred to the motto of the 1st Marine Division, where he served under the broad leadership of then-Maj. Gen. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/marine-corps-generals-leaving-trump-administration-mattis-resigns-2018-12">James Mattis</a>: "Our division motto was 'no better friend, no worse enemy,' and this is a motto for our country."</p><p>"But Trump is doing the exact opposite," Moulton said. "He's abandoning our friends and allies across the globe. He's cozying up to some of the worlds worst dictators. And fundamentally, he's a commander-in-chief that we can't trust."</p><p><em><strong>Read more</strong>: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/marine-corps-robert-neller-leaked-memo-trump-border-wall-2019-4">Marine Corps general reportedly leaked a sensitive memo questioning Trump's border plan</a></em></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div></p><p>One of these friends that Moulton refers to is the late <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/john-mccain-biography-2017-12">Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona</a>, the longtime lawmaker whose willingness to work across the political aisle earned him the nickname "Maverick."</p><p>McCain leaves behind a storied legacy following his death from brain cancer - a legacy that spans Congress and the military, where his own tribulations earned him numerous meritorious awards.</p><p>"John McCain is an American hero," Moulton said. "And though I didn't always agree with him politically, I was proud to work with him to support our country and to support our troops."</p><p>But President Donald Trump continues to disagree with that assessment and hasn't been shy about his <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-john-mccain-complains-he-didnt-get-a-thank-you-for-funeral-2019-3">feelings towards McCain</a>. Trump has vexed some of his most ardent supporters, including <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/for-trump-attacking-mccain-is-a-way-to-appeal-to-his-political-base/2019/03/21/ccb4c856-4bdd-11e9-8cfc-2c5d0999c21e_story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina</a>, by continuing to make disparaging comments against the late senator.</p><p>"They're pathetic as usual," Moulton said of Trump's attacks. "[McCain] continues to intimidate the president even from the grave."</p><p><em><strong>Read more</strong>:<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-and-john-mccain-book-criticism-after-death-2019-2"> 'Pathetic and telling': Meghan McCain responds after Trump reportedly taunted John McCain after his death</a></em></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div></p><p>Like many others who have <a href="https://twitter.com/codykeenan/status/1033525893476638721">shared</a> their memorable encounters with McCain, Moulton also revealed a special moment with the late senator.</p><p>In 2017, Moulton was part of a congressional delegation to the Asia-Pacific. One of his stops included <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/r-flowers-for-us-senator-john-mccain-at-vietnam-war-crash-site-in-hanoi-2018-8">Hoa Lo Prison</a>, also known as Vietnam's "Hanoi Hilton," where McCain was subjected to torture and solitary confinement for over five years during the Vietnam War.</p><p>McCain paused to deliver a few remarks as the delegation toured the prison.</p><p>"At one point, he stopped and talked about how proud he was to serve the country, both in the Navy and in Congress," Moulton recounted to INSIDER.</p><p>McCain then turned and pointed towards Moulton and Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, a newly-elected 33-year-old Republican congressman and retired Marine.</p><p>McCain's next words stuck with Moulton ever since: "And there's a new generation of veterans stepping up to serve as well."</p><p>"I'm just trying to carry on that tradition," Moulton said.</p><p><em><strong>Read more</strong>: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/john-mccain-biography-2017-12">The incredible life of John McCain in photos</a></em></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div></p><h2>"There's other white men running - we have plenty of those"</h2><p>Moulton still faces a significant hurdle on the road to the Democratic primaries: his candidacy comes at a time when the Democratic field is crowded with political heavyweights.</p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/everyone-who-is-running-for-president-in-2020-2019-1">Two dozen Democrats</a> have announced their candidacies with less than a year away from the Iowa Democratic caucuses in February. Candidates like Democratic Sen. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/who-is-bernie-sanders-bio-age-family-key-positions-2019-3">Bernie Sanders</a> of Vermont, a frontrunner in the 2016 US presidential election, already has a two-month head start and raised $18.2 million in the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-much-money-2020-democrats-candidates-have-raised-fundraising-2019-4">first six weeks of announcing his campaign</a>.</p><p>But Moulton won't just be running against Democrats with big coffers. The moderate Democrat's policy proposals are similar to that of his more progressive colleagues - including implementing the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/senate-rejects-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-green-new-deal-2019-3">Green New Deal</a>, making sweeping changes to the US electoral process, and eliminating the Senate filibuster.</p><p>Moulton also faces other candidates with similar backgrounds. Unlike the 2016 Democratic primaries where the only candidate with military experience was former Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia, Moulton has the challenge of distinguishing himself from others veterans:</p><ul><li>Former South Bend, Indiana mayor <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/who-is-pete-buttigieg-bio-age-family-key-positions-2019-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pete Buttigieg</a>, 37, served in the US Navy Reserve and deployed to Afghanistan as an intelligence officer.</li><li>Rep. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/who-is-tulsi-gabbard-bio-age-family-key-positions-2019-4">Tulsi Gabbard</a> of Hawaii, 38, currently serves in the Hawaii Army National Guard and deployed with a medical unit to Iraq.</li></ul><p><em><strong>Read more</strong>: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/who-is-seth-moulton-bio-age-family-key-positions-2019-5">Seth Moulton is running for president in 2020. Here's everything we know about the candidate and how he stacks up against the competition</a></em></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div></p><p>Moulton, who in recent weeks hosted speaking tours for veterans organizations in New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina, said he bore no grudge against the Democratic candidates.</p><p>Moulton particularly has close ties to Buttigieg, who graduated from Harvard three years after he did. (Moulton did not know of Buttigieg when he attended Harvard, but previously appeared at Democratic-sponsored events for Buttigieg in Indiana.)</p><p>"I have great respect for all the other candidates who are running," Moulton said. "But I'm going to leave it to Americans across the country on determining if I can contribute to that conversation in a helpful way."</p><p>Democratic strategists like <span>Rebecca Katz, a former campaign advisor</span> to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, said Moulton and his policy proposals will have difficulty standing out from the slew of other candidates.</p><p>"I think with this many candidates running, you have to make a clear case that if you're going to enter the race, it's because you have something," Katz said. "And I don't believe [Moulton] has something that the other candidates don't."</p><p>Katz described Moulton's r<span>ésumé</span> as an "amazing personal story" but said it was not enough to distinguish him from other candidates.</p><p>"There's other white men running - we have plenty of those," Katz said. "There's other members of Congress. There's other people who have served. There's other millennials. What is his case? I don't know."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div></p><p><span>Nathan Ballard, a former spokesman for Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign in 2004,</span> had more colorful words for the presidential hopeful: "Moulton is in the bottom tier of candidates. His chances of winning are the same as an asteroid hitting Manhattan, exploding, and scattering pieces of candy all over the Central Park like a giant piñata."</p><p>Moulton's poll numbers are also indicative of an uphill battle. Based on a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/2020-election-methodology">recurring series of national surveys</a>, INSIDER was unable to determine the viability of his candidacy. Another <a href="https://www.monmouth.edu/polling-institute/documents/monmouthpoll_ia_041119-2.pdf/">Monmouth University poll</a> revealed that 56% of Iowa Democrats who were likely to vote had never heard of him.</p><p>"This candidacy has the aroma of a 'profile-raising' run," Ballard said. "Deep down, Moulton knows he is primarily running to boost his [name] for future races."</p><p>Moulton didn't rule out the possibility of running for higher office in the future, so long as he could continue serving the nation.</p><p>"There are always going to be critics in politics," Moulton said. "I'm going to do what I believe is best for the country."</p>

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