The Use of AI in the U.S. Military

Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the military leads to fearful discussions about the Terminator movies. The is an overwhelming fear that the U.S. military only seeks the weaponization of AI. Although this is an attractive opportunity for any military in the world, it’s not the only available opportunity. Despite other opportunities, U.S. generals already consider it to be the next big thing in their arsenal. Michael Griffin presented his perspective at the Future of War 2018 conference, held in Washington, DC in April. Griffin, Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, hinted at the U.S.’s desire to militarize AI and machine learning (ML). “There might be an artificial intelligence arms race, but we’re not yet in it,” Griffin said. Regarding China and Russia, he added, “I think our adversaries–and they are adversaries–understand very well the possible future utility of machine learning, and I think it’s time we did as well.” (Griffin, 2018)

AI has an incredible promise. It improves the accuracy and speed of all aspects of human decision making. AI is already enhancing logistics, quality of life, and safety. These enhancements are motivating world governments to speed up research and development. This paper will discuss the expectations of researchers, militaristic, and non-militaristic uses of AI in the military. On the militaristic side, I’ll be discussing the types of AI, reliability concerns, and a timeline for expecting these profound changes. These changes should be embraced while remaining respectful of the negative implications that could come about. Expectations AI researchers worry about the military’s use of this technology. For example, Google employees recently urged their CEO to reconsider decisions with a signed open letter of protest. “We believe that Google should not be in the business of war,” says the letter, addressed to Sundar Pichai, the company’s chief executive (Google Employees, 2018). This was a reaction to the revelation that Google is giving the U.S. Department of Defense “special access to TensorFlow, the company’s machine-learning software library, to help analyze images from drones.” (Snow, 2018) It is difficult for a company to resist the opportunities and financial advantages of military contracts. It appears to be inevitable someone will use AI for everything imaginable; from simple information collection and analysis to develop a more sophisticated and autonomous weapon system. The U.S. government has been slow to embrace the use of AI (Knight, 2018). However, recently proposed legislation will allow the military to refocus its efforts. The legislation emphasizes military uses and “risks associated with United States and foreign country advances in military employment of artificial intelligence and machine learning, including under the international law of armed conflict, international humanitarian law, and escalation dynamics.” (National Security Commission Artificial Intelligence Act, 2018)

References

• Google Employees. (2018, April 4). ‘The Business of War’: Google Employees Protest Work for the Pentagon. Retrieved from The New York Times: https://static01.nyt.com/files/2018/technology/googleletter.pdf
• Griffin, M. (2018). Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. Future of War. Washington, D.C.: New America and Arizona State University.
• Knight, W. (2018, April 6). Here’s how the US needs to prepare for the age of artificial intelligence. Retrieved from Technology Review: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/610379/heres-how-the-us-needs-to-prepare-for-the-age-of-artificial-intelligence/
• National Security Commission Artificial Intelligence Act, H. R. 5356 (House of Representatives March 20, 2018).
• Snow, J. (2018, March 6). The Defense Department is taking on ISIS with Google’s open-source AI software. Retrieved from Technology Review: https://www.technologyreview.com/the-download/610429/the-defense-department-is-taking-on-isis-with-googles-open-source-ai-software/