Emelia Probasco, Helen Toner, Matthew Burtell, and Tim G. J. Rudner
Introduction
Artificial intelligence promises to help military commanders make sense of vast amounts of data at superhuman speeds. The military has a strong motivation to take advantage of AI, and among the most interested within the armed forces are commanders charged with making operational decisions in war. These commanders must continuously “observe, orient, decide, and act” on a fast-paced and multidimensional battlefield where decisions are life-and-death.
The historical desire for sophisticated tools to maintain battlefield awareness, support military planning, and even predict future enemy movements or reactions has led to the creation of everything from weather modeling to campaign modeling to early warning systems.
The strong and understandable desire for AI-enabled decision support systems (DSS) must be tempered, however, by an understanding of the capabilities and limitations of these systems, which should dictate when and how they are deployed.
We begin with a brief history of efforts to fight through the fog of war and the emergence of decision frameworks with supporting tools, linking these to the recent quest for AI-DSS. We then demonstrate the widespread interest in applying AI for decision support among the world’s most powerful militaries. Finally, we characterize the opportunities and risks of applying AI to military decisions and offer a basic framework to guide the deployment of these systems.
No comments:
Post a Comment