Harnessing artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies has become the new arms race among the great powers, a Hudson Institute panel on handling big data in military operations said Monday. Speaking at the online forum, Richard Schultz, director of the international security program in the Fletcher School at Tufts University, said, "that's the way [Russian President Vladimir] Putin looks at it. I don't think we have a choice" but to view it the same way. He added in answer to a question that "the data in information space is enormous," so finding tools to filter out what's not necessary is critical. U.S. Special Operations Command is already using AI to do what in the old days was called political or psychological warfare, in addition to targeting, he added.

Harnessing artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies has become the new arms race among the great powers, a Hudson Institute panel on handling big data in military operations said Monday. Speaking at the online forum, Richard Schultz, director of the international security program in the Fletcher School at Tufts University, said, "that's the way [Russian President Vladimir] Putin looks at it. I don't think we have a choice" but to view it the same way. He added in answer to a question that "the data in information space is enormous," so finding tools to filter out what's not necessary is critical. U.S. Special Operations Command is already using AI to do what in the old days was called political or psychological warfare, in addition to targeting, he added.

Many developments show that states have turned AI technology into a part of the arms race. The "Summary of the 2018 Department of Defense Artificial Intelligence Strategy" report prepared by the U.S. Department of Defense highlighted Chinese and Russian investments in AI weapons technologies and stated the steps to be taken within the framework of such competition. Moreover, the Pentagon's budget for AI arming, worth $2 billion, and the "Executive Order on Maintaining American Leadership in AI" published by U.S. President Donald Trump reveal the importance of arming in AI technology. U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper recently said that the growing threats posed by great power competitors such as China and Russia warrant refocusing on high-intensity conflict across all of the military services. Esper also stressed the necessity of modernizing the military in AI, robotics, directed energy and hypersonic technologies.

Whereas Russia and the United States (U.S.) competed in a traditional arms race through the Cold War, we are now observing a new combative arena where the U.S. government intends to compete with China in the advancement of Industrial Artificial Intelligence (IAI): a new arms race. IAI is defined as a government's motivation to economically invest and advance the commercialization of artificial intelligence within its society. This new arms race may be on the way after U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich (D-NM) and Rob Portman (R-OH) proposed the Artificial Intelligence Act. Believing that Chinese progression in AI technology may soon surpass and threaten American capabilities, the Act calls for a $2.2 billion federal investment strategy over five years in "research, development, demonstration, application to analysis and modeling, and other activities with respect to science and technology in artificial intelligence (AI)." The Act's bi-partisanship nature demonstrates the growing consensus among government officials surrounding the importance of IAI in protecting and bolstering American life against international interference.

The rush by China to incorporate artificial intelligence into its military could trigger a new arms race in the region, analysts have warned. China is lagging far behind the United States in developing its AI capability but the gap is likely to narrow as Beijing pursues its plan to speed up development of an "intelligent military", first outlined by President Xi Jinping in 2017 at the 19th National Party Congress, according to a report by the Centre for a New American Security. The country has set up two major research organisations focused on AI and unmanned systems and present trends suggest that the gap with the US will narrow as China is moving quickly to develop its military AI capability, the report said. China's pursuit of artificial intelligence for its People's Liberation Army forces is aimed at leveraging the emerging technology to enhance national power, according to Adam Ni, China researcher from Macquarie University in Sydney. "Simulations and other exercises aided by AI are important to improve the PLA's training and combat readiness, and form a defensive network that makes it risky for adversaries to undertake military operations," Ni said.

Dozens of scientists, health care professionals and academics have written a letter to the U.N. calling for an international ban of autonomous killer robots, saying recent advances in artificial intelligence "have brought us to the brink of a new arms race in lethal autonomous weapons." The letter, which has been signed by more than 70 health care professionals and was put together by the Future of Life Institute, states that lethal autonomous weapons could fall into the hands of terrorists and despots, lower the barrier to armed conflict and "become weapons of mass destruction enabling very few to kill very many." "Furthermore, autonomous weapons are morally abhorrent, as we should never cede the decision to take a human life to algorithms," the letter continues. "As healthcare professionals, we believe that breakthroughs in science have tremendous potential to benefit society and should not be used to automate harm. We therefore call for an international ban on lethal autonomous weapons."

Artificial intelligence experts point to looming danger amid unpredictable technology and fears that technology could'seduce us into warfare' Experts in artificial intelligence, lawyers and activists organized by the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots gathered at the United Nations on Tuesday to warn against a growing reliance on cheap drones and "stupid AI" that can be unpredictable in the real world. "Terminator always comes up," Toby Walsh, a professor of artificial intelligence at the University of New South Wales, told reporters on Tuesday, referring to the sci-fi cyborg on a mission to wipe out mankind. "But it's not really Terminator that we're worried about at the moment. I think that Terminator is perhaps 50 or so years away." But there are concerning technologies "only a few years, at best, away", Walsh said, and with semi-autonomous systems, such as drones, "it would take very little to remove the human from that loop and replace them with a computer".

In his quest to transform the way the Pentagon wages war, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has turned to Silicon Valley, hoping its experimental culture, innovation and sense of urgency would rub off on the rigid bureaucracy he runs. Carter has made several trips to the region and appointed Eric Schmidt, the chairman of Google's parent company to an advisory board. And recently he sat down at the Pentagon with Elon Musk to see what suggestions the billionaire founder of Tesla and SpaceX might have to make the nation's military more efficient and daring. "Having an incentive structure that rewards innovation is extremely important," he said in an interview after the meeting. Whatever you reward will happen." The Pentagon finds itself in a new arms race, struggling to keep pace with forms of combat that are fought with bytes as well as bullets. The technological advancements disrupting established business sectors are now shaking up the world of war - where robots, swarming drones and ...

In his quest to transform the way the Pentagon wages war, Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter has turned to Silicon Valley, hoping its experimental culture, innovation and sense of urgency would rub off on the rigid bureaucracy he runs. Carter has made several trips to the Valley and appointed Eric Schmidt, the chairman of Google's parent company to an advisory board. And recently he sat down at the Pentagon with Elon Musk to see what suggestions the billionaire founder of Tesla and SpaceX might have to make the nation's military more efficient and daring. "Having an incentive structure that rewards innovation is extremely important," he said in an interview after the meeting. Whatever you reward will happen." The Pentagon finds itself in a new arms race, struggling to keep pace with forms of combat that are fought with bytes as well as bullets. The technological advancements disrupting established business sectors are now shaking up the world of war -- where robots, swarming drones ...