The United States should have an advantage over Russia and China in terms of machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI), and other major cyber capabilities, US Cyber Command chief Gen. Paul Nakasone said at a US House Armed Services Committee hearing on Thursday.  

When asked about the US' ability to compete in cyberspace in the future, Nakasone said, "When I think about China and Russia, our ability to stay ahead of them in areas like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and a series of partnerships and being able to leverage the private sector – this is what we must continue to do."

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The United States has to keep improving its capabilities in this area, Nakasone added, noting that they should keep a close eye on this "very carefully." 

He then warned of China and Russia's alleged efforts to make cyber attacks more advanced.  

"One of the things that we do see is a rise in both scope and sophistication of our adversaries, both in terms of their ability to conduct cyber intrusions and attacks and their ability to defend their data," he said.  

The US Cyber Command chief did not give information on how much China, Iran, Russia, and North Korea spent on cyber security last year.

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It is worth noting that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights warned in February that recent advances in artificial intelligence posed a grave threat to human rights and called for safeguards to prevent violations.

More than 60 countries, including the US and China, demanded that AI be governed in defense so that it "does not undermine international security, stability, and accountability."

Concerns about things like AI-guided drones, "slaughter bots" that can kill without human intervention, and the possibility that artificial intelligence could intensify a military conflict have grown.

"I am deeply disturbed by the potential for harm of recent advances in artificial intelligence," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said.

"Human agency, human dignity, and all human rights are at serious risk. This is an urgent call for both business and governments to develop quickly effective guardrails that are so urgently needed," he said.

Artificial intelligence has become a part of our daily lives, revolutionizing internet searches, altering how we keep track of our health, and introducing innovations like an app that can produce various types of written content in response to a straightforward request.

Critics, however, raised issues such as breaches of privacy and biased algorithms.