As it continues to pursue a major technology modernization campaign, the U.S. Army is looking into what challenges may prevent it from adopting third party-generated artificial intelligence algorithms, a top Army official said on Oct. 16.
Young Bang, principal deputy assistant secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology (ALT), said that the service branch is looking to industry to help tackle key challenges in defense frameworks for AI, testing procedures for third party algorithms, and counter-AI systems.
The first of three efforts – #DefendAI – is a layered defense strategy designed to manage risks and controls for integrating third-party AI algorithms. The framework developed under this effort will help determine whether AI technologies are safe for use in various environments from business applications to weapons systems.
“We want to create a framework so you can help us identify the risk […] so we can take risk-based decisions,” said Bang, referencing various requests for information the Army has put out recently. “[The framework can] say yes, based on this, we can put in a weapon system or this one, we can actually put in the business system.”
The #BreakAI priority focuses on testing AI algorithms, which Bang said is important as AI advances toward artificial general intelligence (AGI) – software with human-like intelligence and self-teaching capabilities.
“Software is deterministic […] algorithms are probabilistic, as we get to AGI, we don’t know how to test for them, because we don’t know their behaviors,” said Bang, emphasizing the need for industry feedback. “So, we need big brains for y’all to help us with that, because those are other obstacles that are preventing us from developing.”
Looking to counter threats posed by AI, the #CounterAI initiative looks to assist in faster response times to AI-driven threats and boosting military capabilities. It also includes building more resilient AI systems.
“We still need that capability [counter AI] if our enemies are going to use that against us,” said Bang, adding that the Army is also thinking ahead to counter-counter AI strategies. “How do we give our soldiers five seconds, a minute, 10 minutes, whatever it is – do we have the ability to count on that.”
The three initiatives are part of the Army’s 500-day AI plan which aims to secure its adoption of AI. The plan was first announced in March, with its first 100-day sprint helping to understand conditions needed to adopt AI and develop the remaining plan.
