Vulnerabilities May Slow Air Force's Adoption of Artificial Intelligence

The Air Force needs to better prepare to defend AI programs and algorithms from adversaries that may seek to corrupt training data, the service's deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and cyber effects said Wednesday. "There's an assumption that once we develop the AI, we have the algorithm, we have the training data, it's giving us whatever it is we want it to do, that there's no risk. There's no threat," said Lt. Gen. Mary F. O'Brien, the Air Force's deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and cyber effects operations. That assumption could be costly to future operations. Speaking at the Air Force Association's Air, Space and Cyber conference, O'Brien said that while deployed AI is still in its infancy, the Air Force should prepare for the possibility of adversaries using the service's own tools against the United States.