Last August, several dozen military drones and tank-like robots took to the skies and roads 40 miles south of Seattle. Their mission: Find terrorists suspected of hiding among several buildings. So many robots were involved in the operation that no human operator could keep a close eye on all of them. So they were given instructions to find--and eliminate--enemy combatants when necessary. The mission was just an exercise, organized by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a blue-sky research division of the Pentagon; the robots were armed with nothing more lethal than radio transmitters designed to simulate interactions with both friendly and enemy robots.

Collecting and generating quality data sets to train artificial intelligence models needs to be a priority for the department, with some officials arguing it should be a requirement in contracts moving forward. By being proactive about collecting and generating data, the future of AI can be built on quality inputs, Michael Kanaan, director of operations at the Air Force's AI Accelerator at MIT, said Tuesday during the AFCEA DCAI and ML Technology Summit. Other technology officials endorsed the idea of being more aggressive about data collection rather than being "opportunistic" or working on old, lower quality data sets. For instance, the Air Force used quality data to train a machine learning model that turned the boards that officials use to manually track flight times into an automated, intelligent system. The ML system that replaced the "puck boards" ensured pilots got enough hours to maintain mission readiness.

I've always loved movie robots, even the bad ones. But as the machines around us become unnervingly smarter, it's hard not to worry that artificial intelligence with malign intent--some version of the Terminator or HAL--will eventually be unleashed on the real world. Stephen Hawking warned that "the development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race." And when the Oxford philosopher Toby Ord examined a host of existential threats--asteroids, nuclear war, climate change--for his bracing book The Precipice, he ranked "unaligned artificial intelligence" the most probable of all. Plunging into the latest crop of AI books, I was somewhat comforted by experts' consensus that "the singularity"--the point at which AI surpasses human intelligence--is not imminent; guesses about the timing range from a few decades to centuries from now.

"Mike Kanaan is an influential new voice in the field of AI, and his thoughts paint an insightful perspective. "Kanaan's book makes us aware of the urgent need for international understanding and a formal agreement on AI. Without binding commitments, the future will pose threats, both military and social, that risk our very survival. AI may be a blessing, but it can also be the ultimate curse. The world must agree to draw a red line between the two, and make sure that no one crosses it." "Never have I read a book that did a better job of putting the challenges and prospects of artificial intelligence into context.

Last March, Chinese researchers announced an ingenious and potentially devastating attack against one of America's most prized technological assets--a Tesla electric car. The team, from the security lab of the Chinese tech giant Tencent, demonstrated several ways to fool the AI algorithms on Tesla's car. By subtly altering the data fed to the car's sensors, the researchers were able to bamboozle and bewilder the artificial intelligence that runs the vehicle. In one case, a TV screen contained a hidden pattern that tricked the windshield wipers into activating. In another, lane markings on the road were ever-so-slightly modified to confuse the autonomous driving system so that it drove over them and into the lane for oncoming traffic.

Kanaan is generally very bullish about AI, partly because he knows firsthand how useful it stands to be for troops. Six years ago, as an Air Force intelligence officer in Afghanistan, he was responsible for deploying a new kind of intelligence-gathering tool: a hyperspectral imager. The instrument can spot objects that are normally hidden from view, like tanks draped in camouflage or emissions from an improvised bomb-making factory. Kanaan says the system helped US troops remove many thousands of pounds of explosives from the battlefield. Even so, it was often impractical for analysts to process the vast amounts of data collected by the imager.

It's not every day that an Air Force captain can give a four-star general an earful. Gen. Stephen Wilson, the vice chief of staff, invites input from his very junior colleague because Kanaan's expertise is artificial intelligence. Wilson says he believes AI's ability to sort mountains of data to find targets like terrorists is a way to change the nature of war. The Air Force needs to lean on Kanaan and other young, tech-savvy airmen, Wilson says, to help transform the way it uses data. "It's pretty unusual," Wilson says of his relationship with Kanaan.