Reuters just reported that the U.S. military is increasing spending on a secret research effort to use artificial intelligence to help anticipate the launch of a nuclear-capable missile, as well as track and target mobile launchers in North Korea and elsewhere.
There are multiple classified programs now under way to explore how to develop AI-driven systems to better protect the United States against a potential nuclear missile strike. If the research is successful, such computer systems would be able to think for themselves, scouring huge amounts of data, including satellite imagery, with a speed and accuracy beyond the capability of humans, to look for signs of preparations for a missile launch, according to more than half a dozen sources.
However, there is also a high probability that countries like China and Russia could try to trick an AI missile-hunting system, learning to hide their missiles from identification. Just last week, an experiment by M.I.T. students showed how easy it was to dupe an advanced Google image classifier, in which a computer identifies objects. In that case, students fooled the system into concluding a plastic turtle was actually a rifle. That is the reason why the Pentagon still needs humans to review AI systems’ conclusions.
Military applications of AI and Deep Learning are just one area of the many potential uses of these technologies I will review with attendees to my seminars with Terrapinn Training, GLDNAcademy and GLC.