A Cautionary Tale on Ambitious Feats of AI: The Strategic Computing Program - War on the Rocks

Machine intelligence has been a military research goal for decades, but is it even worth it? Artificial intelligence research reaches toward long-held visions of human-machine symbiosis, and all the benefits this would have for military might. Even if scientists fall short of these lofty ambitions, or even if they prove impossible to fully achieve, aiming for them may move humanity further along the path of scientific progress -- but are small increments of progress worth billions of taxpayer dollars? Such ambitions for generic AI systems have fueled research programs across the defense landscape since the late 1960s. The Strategic Computing Program grew out of the context of the early 1980s --an optimism about the ability of computers to solve military problems coupled with the Reagan administration's Cold War push to bolster the United States through technology advancement and big defense budgets.