Updating with the Newsweek article saying the same thing.
T.l.d.r. any of the information I wrote below, including the words FIGURE OF SPEECH, but you're angry bc you just read the original headline about the internet "wilding," and you started wilding.
The point is that while it is most likely Kratsios was just trying to sound innovative, it is also not surprising that non-native English speakers would be a bit confused and concerned, given the batshit everything else I explain below with references:
If you're an average Joe just giving a speech in TX, it doesn't really matter. When you're the Science and Technology Advisor to the demented leader of the rapidly crumbling free world, which happens to be locked in a tech war with China, while turning on your allies on the ongoing cusp of WWIII and siding with the aggressor, you should probably be a little more careful with how you phrase things, and at least acknowledge in a statement what you actually meant instead of trying to play some kind of mind game like your dumb fucking boss.
Trump Science Advisor Michael Kratsios, gave a speech at Endless Frontiers Retreat in Austin, Texas on April 14. The event was co-hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations, UT Austin, Texas A&M, Rice University, and Baylor University.
In what seems a poor attempt at a Steve Jobs-like imitation, Kratsios seemed to use a figure of speech (I hope/pray?) to grab audience attention:
"Stagnation was a choice. We have weighed down our builders and innovators. The well-intentioned regulatory regime of the 1970s became an ever-tightening ratchet, first hampering America’s ability to become a net-energy exporter and then making it harder and harder to build. We seem to have lost focus and vision, to have lowered our sights and let systems and structures and bureaucracies muddle us along.
But we are capable of so much more.
Our technologies permit us to manipulate time and space. They leave distance annihilated, cause things to grow, and improve productivity.
As Vice President Vance said in a recent speech, the tradition of American innovation has been one of increasing the capacities of America’s workers, of extending human ability so that more people can do more, and, more meaningful work. But unrestricted immigration, and reliance on cheap labor both domestically and offshore, has been a substitute for improving productivity with technology."
Kratsios' comments on time and space manipulation, led to some reports that the U.S. was officially admitting to having the capability.
The president of the European Center for Information Policy and Security warned that the U.S. and Russia's ability to bend time and space, is a threat to Europe's future..
Given Kratsios' boss has been known to make outrageous but vague threats that are often dismissed as jokes, only to be brought up again later as legitimate possibilities, it is unsurprising that some might take Kratsios' words literally and express concern.
Trump has asked Peter Theil's protege to blaze a trail for science and tech supremacy, and Kratsios has made statements comparing Trump's plan for a "Golden Age of American Innovation," to FDR giving his own science advisor a mandate to chart a course for U.S. research and development.
During Trump's first administration, Kratsios served as Chief Technology Officer and was tasked with using cutting edge technology to tackle COVID misinformation and track early cases of the virus in the U.S..
A 2019 interview with Kratsios indicates he also opposed the regulation of controversial facial recognition technology.
The current Trump administration raised eyebrows earlier this year after the U.S. and U.K both refused to join allies signing an international A.I. agreement.
Similar to Kratsios' view on facial recognition technology, Vice President JD Vance indicated the refusal was due to concerns over strict regulations, stating it could "kill a transformative industry just as it's taking off". Vance vowed that the U.S. would not squander an opportunity to grow AI policies over safety concerns.
Who knows what exciting things await us in the upcoming Golden Age of American Innovation?
I had the same visceral reaction reading the title of this post