The Pentagon is using AI to predict events days into the future

The third series of Global Information Dominance Experiments (GIDE) was held at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado, on July 13, 2021. Before we talk about the US military using big data and artificial intelligence to try to predict future events, we might as well address the elephant -- or rather the notoriously small-statured but undeniably charismatic actor -- in the room. Yes, it sounds a lot like that old 2002 Tom Cruise sci-fi classic Minority Report; the one in which law enforcement uses genetically mutated human "precogs" with psychic abilities to bust criminals before they actually commit their crimes. "What we've seen is the ability to get way further -- what I call left -- left of being reactive to actually being proactive," Gen. Glen D. VanHerck, commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, and US Northern Command told reporters at a briefing last week. VanHerck was discussing the latest results of the Global Information Dominance Experiment, also known as GIDE, a so-called cross-command event that involved representatives from all 11 combatant commands in the US Department of Defense.