If you want to impress a foreign official, the State Department’s storied Treaty Room, with its gilded arches, baroque chandeliers, elaborate portraiture and historical heft, provides the perfect set for political theater. These days, signing an actual treaty in the State Department’s storied Treaty Room is an exceedingly rare occurrence. But on this day in early May, it was being used to make a point: It’s time to get behind the U.S. to beat back China’s technological supremacy. More than 30 diplomats, State officials and staffers cram in there, decked out for the occasion with an array of Norwegian and U.S. flags. Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg, a one-time anti-TikTok crusader and Democratic fundraiser turned “Trump whisperer,” strides into the room. Accompanying him is Anniken Huitfeldt, Norway’s ambassador to the U.S. After customary speeches — today’s are all about securing supply chain security — Huitfeldt and Helberg take pen in hand and get down to business: signing Norway onto Helberg’ssignature Pax Silica Declaration. For all the pomp, there’s an assembly line feel to the process that reflects how practiced Helberg and his team have become in steering — some would argue strong-arming — foreign officials into signing the Pax Silica and join a coalition aimed to break the back of China’s control of the mineral supply chain essential to the technologies fueling the artificial intelligence revolution. So far, Helberg has managed to land a total of 24 country members — including the European Union and critical mineral resource powerhouses Chile and Kazakhstan — to sign the declaration. His pitch to foreign governments is simple: link arms — fast — with the U.S. to oppose what he calls Beijing’s “systemic weaponization” of the global supply chain or risk losing control of tech infrastructure to “people who don’t have our best interests at heart.” The stakes are high. Helberg's role as the State Department's AI champion coincides with a souring in public sentiment that’s intensified this year, particularly over concerns about data centers and a more visceral fear that a super intelligent AI system could plot the extinction of the human race.Meanwhile, Beijing has weaponized its dominance with rare earth minerals through export restrictions that have starved U.S. defense and civilian manufacturing of essential production materials.Helberg seeks to end that dependency and spur joint high tech research, development and manufacturing among the U.S. and its allies and partners.… [TheTopNews] Read More.
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