Artificial intelligence is a general-purpose technology that is steadily becoming pervasive across global society. AI is now beginning to interest the world’s defence forces, but the military comes late to the game. Given this, defence forces globally are fundamentally uncertain about AI’s place in warfighting. Accordingly, there’s considerable experimentation in defence AI underway worldwide.
This process is being explored in a new series sponsored by the Defense AI Observatory at the Helmut Schmidt University/University of the Federal Armed Forces in Germany. Unlike other defence AI studies, the series is not focusing solely on technology but instead is looking more broadly across what the Australian Defence Force terms the ‘fundamental inputs to capability’. The first study examines Australian defence AI, and another 17 country studies have already been commissioned.
The ADF conceives of AI as mainly being used in human–machine teams to improve efficiency, increase combat power and achieve decision superiority, while lowering the risk to personnel. For a middle power, Australia is following a fairly active AI development program with a well-defined innovation pathway and numerous experimentation projects underway.
Please click here to read the full “The ADF could be doing much more with artificial intelligence” article published at The Strategist, written by Griffith Asia Institute Visiting Fellow, Dr Peter Layton.
