Battlefield Prodigy: Inside the US Army's Advanced AI Warfare Strategy

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1:03uh imports and exports i believe so we're gonna dive into it without further ado so i think in reality the big news here is that the u.s army is turning to ai to really kind of forecast enemy movement so they are revealing a very ambitious project known as real-time threat forecasting this thing sounds straight out of a sci-fi movie you know you've seen those movies where essentially they predict who's going to commit a crime and then you get captured before you even commit the crime because they predicted that you were going to do it it feels very very similar to this except um right obviously it's a military predicting what threats are going to happen ahead of time which is a very useful um tool in theory in practice man it just startles me to be to think like you know we would shoot a missile at someone because we know they're about to shoot a missile at us or something like that i don't know if that's the how does that actually get applied but you know that's the worry that i would have and i'm sure other people would have in any case well the reason that would be a worry is just in case the other person didn't actually or wasn't actually gonna shoot that missile and then you shoot it for nothing and you're the one that's the aggressor starting the the skirmish that accelerates something or perhaps two AIs predict that the other AI because right we're using the AI right now to predict but maybe we have an adversary in China or in Russia or in some other country and their AI predicts we're going to attack them and our AI predicts that we're going to attack them and then all of a sudden the AIs are fighting and yeah just sounds like a dystopian future but whatever in any case when we let's get back to the innovative part of it i think the innovation seems to uh really like essentially the system aims to rapidly process a mountain of data that is beyond human capacity to really predict and then conventionally revise enemy activities so i think in line with this a recent request for information which is a rfi has been issued and it is encouraging industry collaboration So I think the future forward system will likely be rooted in AI and needs to be functional on everyday laptops.

2:57So using evolving AI or machine learning technology. Beyond this initiative, I think there is a concern that human intelligence analysts might be overwhelmed by the increasingly intricate landscape of warfare. And based off of what the military is currently saying, they really visualize the future battleground as a whole bunch of robots, autonomous systems, AI-enabled deceptions, soldier machine teams, and self-organized intelligence networks. So reflecting on the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, where Armenia's traditional tanks, I also know and apologize for butchering the pronunciation of that, but essentially Armenia's traditional tanks were completely decimated by Azerbaijan's advanced drones.

3:48and the every evolving drone warfare that we see in Ukraine, I think based off of all of that, I think it's really clear that the military has to adopt and adapt very quickly. They have to adopt AI and they have to adapt quickly. Now, of course, I've already mentioned, you know, the fact that I think a lot of this is quite dystopian, but regardless, I think it's going to happen. So the U.S. military intelligence, I think, can no longer really bank on an enemy following a consistent modus operandi. So I think this is, you know, essentially meaning they're not going to follow the same pattern over and over again.

4:23I think this is going to complicate things in the military aspect a lot. I think this is going to be complicated by an overflow of global intelligence, which essentially is being harvested from a whole bunch of different sources, you know, air, land, sea, we have space sensors, there's human intelligence. I think the amount of data that's being collected from satellites and all sorts of other objects right now make it so that really whoever harnesses that data like everyone has a lot of very complex data harvesting systems and whoever can use that and and apply apply that data the quickest I think is going to be the winner and so I think just the sheer volume of drone imagery collected completely outstrips analysts capacity to actually dissect it.

5:10And I think this really points to an increasing reliance on AI. I've personally spoken to friends that have previously been in the military that have worked with AI in the military, ones that have worked with drones. And it was interesting, you know, just talking to people about the impact of drones alone on the military and, you know, what a game changer that was, not having to call in a helicopter or not having to call in, you know, a spy aircraft to go fly over an object, but being able to just fly a drone and get like really high definition imagery of where snipers or other people are, I think it makes a big impact.

5:42But, you know, inevitably, we're gonna have so much data that just having analysts is going to be a struggle. And so being able to, you know, fly 1000 drones around an enemy base and have AI detect what the hot targets are. And, you know, the best ways to disable artillery or other things, I think is going to be an inevitable outcome of that. So I think what's interesting is video game tech could actually be pretty instrumental in this whole AI-centric approach. I think that would offer 3D visualization technologies and techniques for a really consistent, updated projection of threats. So using commercial video games, I think, would actually simplify the interface learning curve, unlike current defense department systems, which can take months to master.

6:24This is, you know, an idea that a lot of people have floated to kind of bring those two together in a way. But at the same time, the idea of, you know, substituting human officers with AI, I don't think, you know, isn't without its challenges. I think some of the roles might be offloaded to machines that the military might do and that officers might do. But I think that there are stumbling blocks that the military intelligence staff may lack, you know, comprehensive data access for AI to operate, you know, optimally. And I think that was actually revealed by a 2021 RUSI report. So meanwhile, across the pond, as it were, Britain's M-116 spy agency has begun utilizing AI to disrupt critical weapons supply chains to Russia.

7:12This is another really interesting use case of AI that has come out in the headlines recently. So the chief of M16, which is Richard Moore, he really applauded these efforts during a speech at the British embassy in Prague. And Moore believes that AI will augment, not replace human judgment. So his teams are using AI to really kind of work with the current agents that are out on the field and the work that they're doing. I think this is a really interesting use case of AI, of course, using it for, we knew that it would inevitably come to the intelligence agencies, right? It would be used for spying and for other things, disrupting adversaries and whatnot.

7:48And I think, you know, a lot of people are applauding this, like it's good. And I can see that on the one hand, perhaps, if this is, you know, helping your cause. But at the end of the day, the thing that I think of is the fact that if you have access to this kind of technology, inevitably your adversaries will also have access to it. And so it's kind of a zero sums game. In my opinion, it's like if someone was applauding the fact that we developed a nuclear bomb because now we're the most powerful. Well, eventually, you know, every other adversary we had developed nuclear bombs. And there's obviously a lot of ethical dilemmas that come with that.

8:20And so I think at the end of the day, and I know people think I'm like you've been using hyperbole or exaggerating. But like this isn't an exaggeration when we're talking about the use of AI in the military. I think specifically there is some pretty massive implications for this and, you know, use it for intelligence and whatnot. So it's going to be an interesting area to follow. I, you know, at the end of the day, I wish that there was no AI in the military rule. I mean, I really wish there was no war in the world, but this is not a perfect world. We do not get to wish for whatever we want to avoid all conflicts in the world as much as that would be amazing.

8:58It's not going to happen. So I think at the end of the day, we really just have to focus on developing the most powerful technology, the most powerful software. And I think this is going to be a very interesting space to follow.