AI Objectors Can Still Contribute to Nation's Defense.

• Author: Freeman, Jared
• Position: Viewpoint

The Defense Department is investing heavily in artificial intelligence. But some of America's finest AI innovators are raising concerns about the military applications of their work.

Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and Tesla, warns that machine intelligence may outstrip humans' ability to control it. Employees of Google loudly and successfully protested the company's involvement in the Defense Department's Project Maven, an initiative that develops computer vision and machine learning techniques to search video for targets and threats.

Objections to military applications of new technology are principled and they have precedent, so we must take them seriously. Consider the anxiety created by military use of drones. Similar concerns produced international treaties that ban certain biological and chemical materials in warfare, though the Syrian regime and Russian assassins still put them to horrific use.

Innovators who object to offensive applications of AI can still contribute to the military defense of the nation. AI can serve warfighters and the civilians they protect--even if they are not used offensively--to find, fix and destroy adversaries.

Several challenges the Defense Department is facing make the point well. Personnel operate in conditions that are often extreme, that can compromise their ability to perform and survive. Soldiers push themselves to the limits to be physically fit, yet often injure themselves in the process. U.S. warfighters apply the most advanced military technology, yet some of our weapons cause traumatic brain injury and related effects to the troops who use them.

The solutions to these cases are similar: the use of technologies such as sensors, analytics, AI and machine learning to help prevent or preempt injury, or to better understand the problems and assess solutions that can make a difference.

Consider the work of aircraft maintainers who spend thousands of hours each year working inside the dark, cramped, tight quarters within the wings and fuel tanks of aircraft. The air can be toxic and the opportunity for entrapment, asphyxiation and other injury high. Current safety regimens require attendants to be stationed nearby to check their status, but a worker can be rendered unconscious by fumes before an attendant is aware. It is a high-risk environment with high potential for failure. This spurred the Air Force Sustainment Center and the Air Force Research Laboratory to invest in a system of sensors and analytics...