The Pentagon’s efforts to maintain a strategic advantage against China in the domains of artificial intelligence and machine learning are being undermined by bureaucratic waste and a lack of urgency, according to a former Department of Defense (DoD) cybersecurity official. “China isn’t behind, but is leading, and we are running out of time,” said Nicolas Chaillan, the former chief software officer for the Air Force and Space Force, in an email. Chaillan resigned last month following the DoD’s decision to cancel funding for multiple cyber initiatives, including the Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) initiative, which would have integrated sensors from the Navy, Army, Air Force, Space Force, and Marines into one network. In a Sept. 2 open letter on LinkedIn, Chaillan said that he and the Air Force’s chief information officer were being “unempowered” by senior military leadership, and prevented from completing even the most basic of IT issues. He …