A team of Chinese researchers funded by China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) recently claimed to have used artificial intelligence (AI) to design an electrical layout of a warship with 100 percent accuracy and at an unprecedented speed. A team of researchers from the China Ship Design and Research Center, headed by Luo Wei, a senior engineer with the ship design center, published a paper in the Chinese-language journal Computer Integrated Manufacturing Systems on February 27. The researchers claimed in the paper that their AI designer took only a day to complete work that humans would need nearly a year to achieve with the most advanced computer tools. Considering the scale and complexity of modern warships, mistakes are sure to happen during the design process, and it can take several hours to discover and rectify them. However, when the researchers put the AI designer to the test, with more than 400 challenging tasks, they found that the AI could accomplish 100 percent accuracy.

Saildrone Explorer unmanned surface vessels (USV) operate with USS Delbert D. Black (DDG-119) on Oct. 7, 2022. The Navy is thinking about artificial intelligence in two ways: the infrastructure to make unmanned systems work and technology meant to enhance how sailor and their commanders make decisions, a panel of technical and policy experts said Tuesday. The output provided by AI is there help the human or supplement manned operations with unmanned assets, said Brett Vaughan, Navy Chief AI Officer, speaking at the U.S. Naval Institute on Tuesday. A human will always be in the loop and play a central role. "By and large, the AI is there to augment and provide a human decision maker a range of options and recommendations," Vaughan said.