I lead the Innovation Council in NATO, and in each of them we work with technologies that transform our society, economy and national security, said Mircea Joane, Deputy Secretary General of NATO.

“We have begun to put into action everything that quantum computing means. All quantum technologies are beginning to be used commercially. Already in use on the connection. China already has post-quantum encrypted satellite communications. We in NATO are preparing for post-quantum communications,” he said.

What quantum will do with generative AI, he says, “will be something we’ve never seen before in human history.”

• “Governing how we find regulatory formulas that do not stifle innovation, but allow decent use with respect for the person, decency, democratic values, will be a gigantic challenge”

Mircea Jeona argues that biotechnology and synthetic biology are catching up extremely quickly.

“We look at NATO with great interest in this area. If you look at the Boston area, which is kind of the Silicon Valley of biotech, you see the capitalization numbers, the funding, the huge money,” he said.

• “I’ll give you an example of what will happen in a few years with synthetic biology. We will be able to cure diseases, detect diseases from the air, reduce methane emissions from animal husbandry by more than 80%.”

“The transformation brought about by biotechnology and synthetic biology together with AI and Quantum is absolutely phenomenal. They transform a person,” said NATO Deputy Secretary General.

• “Romanian Adrian Bot from Los Angeles, who discovered a cure for leukemia, is now working on a new innovation that will soon be implemented: biodegradable nanobots that fight cancer. They inject you with nanobots and within 24 hours it has evacuated, disappeared, attacked the diseased cell. Imagine your transformation into medicine”

According to him, they are currently working on something else: innovations in new materials that do not come from Mendeleev’s table.

“This international resettlement game in history will have winners and losers. Countries that perceive innovation not only as an element of technology, research, but as a state of mind in society will be clear winners,” explained Joane.

• “States with weak governance will find it very difficult to cope with this transformation. I hope that synthetic biology will extend my life”

• “Never in human history have we had such a combination of transformative technological revolutions at the same time as we are experiencing today”

Companies will pay a premium for economic security

“There will also be a premium, a bonus that will be given by companies and the state for economic security. Not only military security, not only 2% of GDP for defense,” said a NATO representative during the Rethink event.

According to him, “this will be a bonus, a premium, for the sustainability of supply chains, cyber resilience, relativization of dependence on critical raw materials, including rare earth elements.”

“For everything that means the economic dimension, there will be a premium that we should all be ready to pay,” Mircea Joane noted.

According to him, now there is an internal, inseparable connection between the economy and security.

“Let’s stop looking at security and the economy separately. They are part of a single whole,” Joane explained.