A panel discussion on how robotics and autonomous systems could aid small units included a warning from a top Army expert that the “biggest danger facing the nation is someone else’s robots on the battlefield.”
Artificial intelligence and autonomous systems “are no longer science fiction,” said Gen. John M. Murray, the U.S. Army Futures Command commanding general and the soldier charged with building vast new capabilities for future battles.
While a national commission is forming to review implications of artificial intelligence in national security programs, the Association of the U.S. Army will host a two-day symposium in Detroit looking at ways autonomous systems, machine learning and robotics can be used to expand capabilities and solve military problems.
Hosted by AUSA’s Institute of Land Warfare, the Army Autonomy and Artificial Intelligence Symposium and Exposition will be held Nov. 28–29 at the Cobo Center on the riverfront in downtown Detroit.
U.S. military leaders “are right to be alarmed” by the impact of artificial intelligence on future operations, warns a new research paper published by the Association of the U.S. Army’s Institute of Land Warfare.
Written by Maj. Christopher Telley, an Army information operations officer, the paper says automatic information operations with the ability to influence tens of thousands of people at once have “grave implications for U.S. national security.”
The Army has been shifting more research and technology funding to autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles because future battles could be won by the side with the best robotics, Army Secretary Mark T. Esper said.
Artificial intelligence and robotics have “the potential to fundamentally change the character of warfare,” Esper said earlier this month at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado. “We want to get there first, and I tell you we will get there first.”
Machine learning and other artificial intelligence is likely to significantly expand military capabilities, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley said June 21 during a Capitol Hill National Security Forum.
Thinking, data-chewing machines that may even be capable of emotion will be a major influence on the military, with the biggest question being how fast the new technology is available and how it is adapted to military uses, Milley said. “It will have fundamental impact,” he said.
Robotics and artificial intelligence will be in widespread use on the battlefield as soon as within the next decade, which is why the Army is investing in those technologies now, the Army’s top leaders told a Senate committee.
In recent testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee, Army Secretary Mark T. Esper and Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley outlined a future scenario in which the Army will have manned and unmanned combat vehicles on the battlefield. There will be flexibility in how they are used, and they will provide better protection for soldiers.
