Artificial Intelligence Will Transform Warfare by David Vergun, DOD News
June 10, 2020
Army Lt. Gen. John N.T. ''Jack'' Shanahan spoke remotely from the
Pentagon on June 4, 2020 with Dave Deptula, dean of the Mitchell
Institute for Aerospace Studies.
''It is my conviction and
deep passion that AI will transform the character of warfare in the
Department of Defense in the course of the next 20 years,'' Shanahan
said. ''There is no part of the department that will not be impacted
by this, from the back office to the battlefield, from under sea to
cyberspace and outer space, and all points in between.'
 August 14, 2019 - An M4 Carbine rifle equipped with the Smart Shooter sighting device lies next to drones to be used as moving targets for the 9th Reconnaissance Wing at Beale Air Force Base, California. The sighting device attaches to the weapon and then locks on and fires to neutralize its target with or without movement. The device is also being used to limit friendly fire, as the weapon cannot be fired unless it is purposely locked on. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Alexandre Montes)
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Artificial intelligence, often called AI, has been happening in
commercial industry, but that effort only started in earnest in the
department about 10 years ago, he noted, but ''we've been stuck in
first gear in terms of fielding''.
DOD has long struggled
with how to take the world's best research and development and field
it at speed and at scale, he added.
Since the Joint
Artificial Intelligence Center began operations about two years ago,
all of the foundational elements have been put into place, Shanahan
said, noting that the center now has 185 employees with a $1.3
billion annual budget.
Shanahan elaborated on what artificial intelligence foundational
elements mean ... including AI strategy, policy, ethics, coalition
partnerships, rules of engagement, user testing and evaluation.
All those elements were brought into the Joint Artificial
Intelligence Center, where integrated product teams for projects do
all of that work simultaneously, as opposed to sequentially, he
said. ''In the department, those tend to happen in very different
places, and sometimes they don’t happen at all.''
The
center's initiatives are focused on lower-consequence, lower-risk
missions such as preventive maintenance, humanitarian assistance,
defensive cyber and business process transformation, he said.
But perhaps the most important current focus is on joint
warfighting operations, he said.

August 14, 2019 - Air Force Staff Sgt. Colton Becker, 9th Security Forces Squadron training flight, notifies Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Dustin Hall, 9th Reconnaissance Wing command chief, that he is cleared to fire while using the Smart Shooter sighting device during a demonstration at Beale Air Force Base, California. The 9th SFS Airmen have been using off-the-shelf commercial technology to help training and to improve how their missions are conducted.
(U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Alexandre Montes)
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Over the next one to two years, the goal will be delivery of
these AI-enabled systems to the warfighter, he said. ''We have to
show we're making a difference,'' he added.
Shanahan said
moving the department from being an industrial age, hardware-driven
force to being an information-age, software-driven, more
risk-tolerant one won’t be easy. Nor will it be easy to choose where
to take those risks and how to take those risks, he said.
''We're dealing with 60 years of legacy systems, legacy workflows,
legacy talent management. You can't just bolt those cutting-edge
technologies onto ... legacy equipment and expect to transform the
Department of Defense,'' he said, adding that, culturally, AI has to
be in the fabric of the department and what DOD does every single
day.
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