AI Will Reboot the Army's Battlefield

Artificial intelligence, or AI, will become an integral warfighter for the U.S. Army if the service's research arm has its way. Scientists at the Army Research Laboratory are pursuing several major goals in AI that, taken together, could revolutionize the composition of a warfighting force in the future. The result of their diverse efforts may be a battlefield densely populated by intelligent devices cooperating with their human counterparts. This AI could be self-directing sensors, intelligent munitions, smart exoskeletons and physical machines, such as autonomous robots, or virtual agents controlling networks and waging defensive and offensive cyber war. And it won't be just the virtual agents that wage direct combat. Intelligent devices will fight their counterparts on the enemy's side.