The U.S. Military Wants Robots That Can Explain Themselves

The future of defense technology will be driven by artificial intelligence (AI), but robotic weapons, vehicles, and soldiers won't be much use if human service members don't trust or understand their automated counterparts. In order to build human confidence in machines, Pentagon researchers want to develop systems that explain exactly what they're doing. Last week, the United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced their Explainable AI (XAI) program, an initiative that will ensure people won't be confused by emerging battlefield tech. The agency will begin development in May 2017 and work on the project for four years. The human-robot trust gap is a growing concern for the Department of Defense.