While the military services will take responsibility for developing and fielding artificial intelligence (AI) applications for weapons systems, the Pentagon’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC) is focusing on improving and accelerating decision making by commanders and on ensuring that the military services adhere to ethical AI standards, the director of JAIC said on June 24.
“Most AIs that run specific systems…are service-developed or service-led,” Marine Lt. Gen. Michael Groen, the JAIC director, told reporters in a June 24 Pentagon briefing after the conclusion of a separate DoD AI Symposium. “One of the things that we’re really focused on [at JAIC], that we think matches the maturity of AI technology today, is helping decision support, like teeing up good decisions for commanders to help commanders make decisions based on sound data–either patterns in historical data or knowledge of things happening in the battlefield with the Red Force or the Blue Force.”
“If we can inform decision makers, we think that is the most significant application of artificial intelligence, and then we’ll continue to go from there into other functions,” Groen said. “And the list is endless–from moving logistics successfully around the battlefield, understanding what’s happening based on historical pattern and precedent, understanding the implications of weather or terrain on maneuvers. All of those things could be assisted by AI so you will see a rapid proliferation of enabling tools for decision makers across a wide range of warfighting functions.”
The military services are moving forward on fielding AI on weapons systems. For example, last December, the ARTUµ AI algorithm by Booz Allen Hamilton [BAH] helped to steer the radar of a Lockheed Martin [LMT] U-2 reconnaissance aircraft and navigate the plane in a flight from Beale AFB, Caif. (Defense Daily, Jan. 8).
On June 22, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks announced the DoD AI and Data Acceleration initiative to accelerate the development of data and AI-dependent concepts, like Joint All-Domain Command and Control, through a series of exercises. Hicks said that the Pentagon is creating operational data teams for the 11 combatant commands to automate data feeds to improve decision making.