U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command lack the artificial intelligence capabilities needed to do their jobs to the fullest and maintain an edge over rival nations, according to the leader of both organizations. "My assessment today is I don't have what I need, as far as artificial intelligence and machine learning, to give the decision space to the president, secretary of defense, the chief of defense staff in Canada, the minister of defense and the prime minister in Canada," Air Force Gen. Glen VanHerck said at a Defense Writers Group event April 25. The former is responsible for guarding the continental U.S. and its surroundings. The latter combines U.S. and Canadian efforts to monitor and protect North American airspace, among other things. NORTHCOM recently asked Congress for an additional $29.8 million to buy information technology equipment and to optimize infrastructure for AI and machine learning at its joint operations center with NORAD.

U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command don't have sufficient artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities, the dual-hatted chief of both organizations warned Monday. The Pentagon is pursuing new space-based sensors, communications systems and other capabilities to improve situational awareness. But it needs AI to better crunch and share the data it collects. "This year's budget, I think, moves the ball down the field with regards to domain awareness. We'll be able to hopefully field over-the-horizon capabilities, which will give us more standoff distance than what we currently have today. But we also need to take that domain awareness -- the sensors that we have today and any potential new sensors -- and share that data and information, and utilize artificial intelligence and machine learning to make that data and information available sooner than we have in the past to decision-makers," Gen. Glen VanHerck, commander of U.S. Northern Command (Northcom) and North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), told the Defense Writers Group.

U.S. Northern Command has asked Congress for an additional $29.8 million to buy information technology equipment and to optimize infrastructure for artificial intelligence and machine learning at its joint operations center with the North American Aerospace Defense Command. The upgrades would buttress efforts to ingest, process and aggregate data across the Department of Defense's cloud-computing environment and share intel with forces across all domains, also known as the "information dominance enabling capability," according to a fiscal year 2023 unfunded priority list obtained by Defense News. Air Force Gen. Glen VanHerck, commander of NORTHCOM and NORAD, told lawmakers March 24 that "advanced capabilities" like AI will help give the U.S. an advantage over complex competitors. "Incorporating artificial intelligence and machine learning into existing capabilities will allow users to pull needed information from existing data sets and share that data with leaders at all levels to expand their decision space and options necessary to achieve desirable outcomes," VanHerck said in testimony submitted to the Senate Armed Services Committee. Combatant commands and other leaders send wishlists to the Hill annually.

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.

GIDE was designed to increase access to real-time information that can help leaders prepare for enemy action and hopefully deter it, rather than react to conflict once it has started. The US military is testing the use of cutting-edge data gathering tools combined with artificial intelligence to predict enemies' next moves up to days in advance. Speaking at a press conference, the commander of the US Northern Command (NORTHCOM) Glen VanHerck revealed that trials have been ongoing to improve the military's use of data when making key strategic decisions, with the third part of an initiative called the Global Information Dominance Experiment (GIDE) showing promising results. GIDE was designed to increase access to real-time information that can help leaders prepare for enemy action and hopefully deter it, rather than react to conflict once it has started. SEE: Attacks on critical infrastructure are dangerous.

General Glen VanHerck, Commander of NORTHCOM and North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), recently conducted a series of tests that delves into the precognitive abilities of AI. Called the Global Information Dominance Experiment 3 (GIDE 3), it basically consists of global sensor networks, artificial intelligence (AI) systems, and cloud computing resources in the aim to achieve information dominance as well as decision-making superiority. VanHerck claimed that the machine learning and artificial intelligence can detect changes, while parameters are set where it will trip an alert to give you the awareness to go take another sensor such as GEOINT on-satellite capability to take a closer look at what might be ongoing in a specific location. This means VanHerck is able to see events days in advance, creating decision space, and potentially posturing forces to create deterrence options to provide that to the secretary or even the president. And I'm talking not minutes and hours, I'm talking days," said General Glen VanHerck, Commander of NORTHCOM and North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). Guinness World Records has recognized Forpheus as the "first robot…

U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) recently conducted a series of tests known as the Global Information Dominance Experiments, or GIDE, which combined global sensor networks, artificial intelligence (AI) systems, and cloud computing resources in an attempt to "achieve information dominance" and "decision-making superiority." According to NORTHCOM leadership, the AI and machine learning tools tested in the experiments could someday offer the Pentagon a robust "ability to see days in advance," meaning it could predict the future with some reliability based on evaluating patterns, anomalies, and trends in massive data sets. While the concept sounds like something out of Minority Report, the commander of NORTHCOM says this capability is already enabled by tools readily available to the Pentagon. General Glen VanHerck, Commander of NORTHCOM and North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), told reporters at the Pentagon this week that this was the third test of GIDE, conducted in conjunction with all 11 combatant commands "collaborating in the same information space using the same exact capabilities." The experiment largely centered around contested logistics and information advantage, two cornerstones of the new warfighting paradigm recently proposed by the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The Pentagon is stealing a page from Minority Report with an experimental artificial-intelligence program that can look'days in advance' and predict possible attacks on vulnerable locations. The Global Information Dominance Experiments, or GIDE, use machine learning to sift through vast amounts of data to notice tiny changes that humans might miss - such as the number of cars increasing or decreasing in a parking lot - which might indicate an evolving threat. The program can then alert human agents who can take a closer look at the location. The latest experiment - GIDE 3 - focused on'contested logistics', in a scenario where lines of communication in the Panama Canal were compromised, military officials said. General Glen VanHerck, commander of the US Northern Command (NORTHCOM), said GIDE combines artificial intelligence and cloud computing resources with data from sources around the world to'achieve information dominance' and'decision-making superiority.'

The US military's AI experiments are growing particularly ambitious. The Drive reports that US Northern Command recently completed a string of tests for Global Information Dominance Experiments (GIDE), a combination of AI, cloud computing and sensors that could give the Pentagon the ability to predict events "days in advance," according to Command leader General Glen VanHerck. It's not as mystical as it sounds, but it could lead to a major change in military and government operations. The machine learning-based system observes changes in raw, real-time data that hint at possible trouble. If satellite imagery shows signs that a rival nation's submarine is preparing to leave port, for instance, the AI could flag that mobilization knowing the vessel will likely leave soon. Military analysts can take hours or even days to comb through this information -- GIDE technology could send an alert within "seconds," VanHerck said.

Using artificial intelligence for rapid data collection and integration of shrunk the commander's decision cycle from days to minutes in some instances in a recent information experiment by U.S. Northern Command, the head of NORTHCOM said Wednesday. Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon, Gen. Glen VanHerck said the Global Information Dominance Exercise or GIDE, "focused a lot on contested logistics to give us a scenario where maybe a line of communication such as the Panama Canal may be challenged," by a peer competitor such as China or Russia. The experiment wrapped up during the second week of July. The experiment was hosted by NORTHCOM but included 11 combatant commands, which illustrated how they can integrate and act on data from satellites, planes, and other sources. It also tested the command's ability to use new artificial intelligence abilities to monitor and predict potential threats using those data sources.