UK to invest in AI and cyber as part of major defense spending hike – TechCrunch

The UK has announced a massive boost in defense spending -- £16.5 billion ($21.8BN) over four years, the biggest such spending bump for 30 years -- in what prime minister Boris Johnson has described as a "once in a generation modernization" of the UK's armed forces and "the end of the era of retreat" on funding for defense. Overall the UK prime minister said the spending hike will create 40,000 jobs, adding that it will cement the country's position as the biggest military defense spender in Europe and the second largest in NATO after the US. Johnson said the focus for investment will be on cutting edge technologies that can "revolutionize" warfare -- implying a major role for artificial intelligence and sensor-laden connected hardware in "forging our military assets into a single network designed to overcome the enemy", as he put it in a statement to parliament, setting out the first conclusions from an the (ongoing) review of security, defense, development and foreign policy. "A soldier in hostile territory will be alerted to a distant ambush by sensors or satellites or drones instantly transmitting a warning using artificial intelligence to device the optimal response and offering an array of options -- from summoning an air strike to ordering a swarm attack by drones, or paralyzing the enemy with cyber weapons," Johnson told the House of Commons today, speaking via video conference as he continues to self isolate following a coronavirus contact. "New advances will surmount the old limits of logistics," he went on, fleshing out the rational for spending on upgrading military technology.