The Unbundling of Power: Deconstructing the Memorandum on Advancing United States Leadership in Artificial Intelligence

The future of national power will not be measured in aircraft carriers or tank battalions, but in petaflops and algorithms. A recent flurry of policy from the White House, functioning as a de facto memorandum on advancing the United States leadership in artificial intelligence, confirms this new reality. The race for AI dominance is officially the central theater of geopolitical competition.

For the AI-Curious Professional, this isn't just about new technology; it's about understanding the government's high-level strategy that will shape industries and careers. For the Philosophical Inquirer, the implications are far deeper, touching on the very nature of statecraft and human control. And for the Aspiring AI Ethicist, these documents are a live case study in the monumental challenge of embedding values into code that will define war, peace, and security.

But to truly understand the gravity of this moment, we must look past the policy jargon. As I argue in my book, The Great Unbundling, AI's primary function is to systematically isolate human capabilities—analysis, intuition, decision-making—and rebuild them with superhuman efficiency. This government-led push for AI leadership is a state-sponsored acceleration of this unbundling, fundamentally redefining the mechanisms of national power. This article will deconstruct the US government's national security memorandum on AI through the lens of The Great Unbundling, revealing what it means for the future of the nation and the value of its citizens.

What is the National Security Memorandum on AI?

While multiple directives and reports exist, the foundational document acting as the central memorandum AI strategy is President Biden's October 2023 Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence. This landmark order serves the purpose of a national security memorandum on AI, establishing a whole-of-government approach to maximizing AI's benefits while managing its profound risks.

The order's directives are sweeping, aiming to steer the trajectory of AI development across society.

Core Objectives of the White House AI Strategy:

• New Standards for AI Safety and Security: Requiring developers of the most powerful AI systems to share safety test results with the U.S. government.
• Protecting Americans' Privacy: Prioritizing the development and use of privacy-preserving techniques.
• Advancing Equity and Civil Rights: Providing clear guidance to prevent AI algorithms from being used to exacerbate discrimination.
• Promoting Innovation and Competition: Catalyzing AI research across the United States and ensuring a level playing field for small businesses.
• Leading Abroad: Engaging with international allies to establish a global framework for AI governance.
• Responsible Government and Military Use: The creation of a national security memorandum specifically tasked the Department of Defense and the intelligence community with the safe, ethical, and effective use of AI.

On the surface, these are prudent and necessary goals. But viewed through the framework of The Great Unbundling, this memorandum represents a historic turning point where the functions of the state itself are being systematically unbundled.

The Great Unbundling of National Security

For centuries, the power of a nation-state was a bundled concept, integrating its industrial might, the skill of its diplomats, the intuition of its spies, and the courage of its soldiers. The US memorandum on advancing the United states leadership in artificial intelligence codifies the process of breaking that bundle apart, piece by piece.

H3: Unbundling the Warfighter: Autonomous Systems and Lethal Decisions

The Executive Order calls for the Department of Defense to implement principles for "responsible military use of AI." This directly addresses the development of Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems (LAWS).

• The Unbundling: Historically, a soldier bundled perception, judgment, and action. They saw the target, assessed the threat according to rules of engagement, and physically pulled the trigger. AI unbundles this completely. An AI system can perceive with superhuman sensors, "judge" based on trillions of data points, and "act" with mechanical precision—all without consciousness, fear, or moral reflection.
• The Numbers: The Department of Defense's budget request for fiscal year 2024 included a staggering $1.8 billion for AI, a key component of its $145 billion research and development budget. This capital is the engine of unbundling, financing the separation of battlefield decisions from human cognition.
• The Implication: When a drone makes a targeting decision, we have unbundled the act of war from human moral agency. The national security memorandum on AI attempts to wrap this in the language of "ethics," but it cannot escape the fundamental shift: we are creating systems that can wage war, removing the human from the most human of conflicts.

H3: Unbundling Intelligence: From Human Analyst to Algorithmic Insight

Intelligence analysis has always been a blend of science and art. An analyst pores over data, but their true value is in the bundled capability of recognizing patterns while applying human intuition, cultural understanding, and a "feel" for the situation.

• The Unbundling: The memorandum AI strategy rightly identifies AI as a tool to "process, analyze, and act on critical information more quickly." This unbundles pattern recognition from human understanding. An AI can sift through global communication intercepts in seconds, identifying connections no human could ever find.
• The Risk: It can do this without understanding slang, sarcasm, or political context. It separates the "what" from the "why." This creates the potential for a powerful but brittle intelligence apparatus—one that could misinterpret data at a catastrophic scale because it lacks the bundled wisdom of a seasoned human analyst.

Geopolitical Implications: The New Arms Race

This memorandum on advancing the United States leadership in artificial intelligence was not written in a vacuum. It is a direct response to a global AI arms race, with China as the primary competitor. The document is as much about national security as it is about economic survival.

A 2023 report from Stanford's Institute for Human-Centered AI (HAI) noted that China now publishes nearly half of the world's AI journal papers. While the US still leads in private investment, the global landscape is intensely competitive.

The Governance Gap: Can Policy Keep Pace?

The memorandum's focus on creating safety standards and governance is a crucial and commendable effort. However, it highlights a central argument from The Great Unbundling: the profit-driven, and now security-driven, "unbundling engine" inherently outpaces governance.

Capitalism and national security are forces that prioritize speed and competitive advantage. They fuel the unbundling of capabilities at a pace that defies regulation. The national security memorandum is an attempt to put guardrails on a bullet train that has already left the station. It aims to ensure "trustworthy" AI, but the very nature of the geopolitical race incentivizes deploying more powerful, less understood systems faster than one's rivals.

The Re-bundling Response: Finding Human Value in an AI-Secured World

So, what is the human response? Are we destined to become mere bystanders to algorithmic statecraft and warfare? Part IV of my book explores the "Great Re-bundling"—the conscious human effort to resist and adapt.

The Indispensable Human-in-the-Loop

The most critical "re-bundling" effort in national security is the push for "Meaningful Human Control." This principle insists that for critical decisions, especially lethal ones, a human must remain in the command-and-control loop. It is a conscious choice to re-bundle AI's analytical power with human moral judgment. This philosophy argues that efficiency must not be the only metric of success; human accountability and ethical oversight are paramount, even if it makes a system marginally slower. The debate over this principle within the Pentagon and among allies will define the future of ethical warfare.

A New Social Contract

The memorandum AI acknowledges the domestic impact, touching on job displacement and the need to support American workers. This connects national security to a core civilizational challenge discussed in The Great Unbundling: if AI unbundles human capabilities, thereby eroding the economic value of the average person, what new social contract is required? The stability of the nation, a key security concern, may ultimately depend on policies like Universal Basic Income (UBI)—not as a simple policy choice, but as a civilizational necessity to ensure social cohesion when the traditional bundle of human labor is no longer competitive.

Conclusion: The Memorandum's True Message

The memorandum on advancing the United States leadership in artificial intelligence is more than a policy paper. It is a historical marker acknowledging that the very source code of power has changed. It is the US government's attempt to steer a force that is actively unbundling the core functions of warfare, intelligence, and governance.

J.Y. Sterling's work provides the essential framework for understanding this shift. We are moving from a world defined by the integrated skills of the individual human to one defined by the disaggregated, optimized, and automated functions of AI. To lead in this new world requires not just building better AI, but fundamentally re-examining the role and value of the human being within it. The memorandum shows the map of where the government wants to go; The Great Unbundling provides the key to reading it.

---

Take the Next Step

To fully grasp the civilizational shift detailed in this policy, you must understand the core forces at play. Read an in-depth analysis in J.Y. Sterling's foundational book, The Great Unbundling: How Artificial Intelligence is Redefining the Value of a Human Being.

Sign up for our newsletter to receive ongoing analysis of how AI is reshaping our world, from national security to the future of your career.