Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) represent an increasingly exciting field of computer science. A term originally coined by John McCarthy in 1956,1 AI is becoming increasingly pervasive in today’s world. From internet search engines to applicant tracking software, humanity’s interaction with AI/ML intersects in complex and oftentimes unforeseen ways. For the men and women of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), this complex relationship is increasingly magnified by the problem sets we face, the solutions we seek, and the missions we perform.
Four years ago, DoD leadership recognized the limitless potential of AI/ML while acknowledging the need to establish ethical guardrails to contain wanton development of weaponized AI/ML systems. Addressing existing ethical ambiguities and future risks associated with AI use in defense applications, former Secretary of Defense Dr. Mark T. Esper accepted the Defense Innovation Board’s recommendations on ethical principles governing AI/ML development and application. Focusing on five core principles, the DoD requires that AI/ML capabilities developed for defense applications be responsible, equitable, traceable, reliable, and governable. Uniting new frontiers with the United States’ unwavering values, these principles ensure AI/ML development remains responsive to the needs of the country and its allies while remaining aligned with the DoD’s existing ethical framework and legal obligations.2
The articles in this special issue of the CSIAC Journal represent a small portion of the research and evaluation and real-world employment of AI/ML capabilities with defense applications. Our contributors focused on AI/ML’s linkage to several defense-related needs, including cybersecurity, knowledge management and information sharing, and modeling and simulation (M&S). In our featured article “Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a Force Multiplier in U.S. Military Information Campaigns,” Aaron Sweeney and his team of coauthors from the Virginia National Guard explore the use of AI to assist Warfighters in planning, executing, and evaluating military information operations. Tracing the history of information operations from Sun Tzu onward to the modern wargaming environment of Cyber Fortress, they explore how AI systems can aggregate data sources to both generate content and disseminate false narratives and detect and counter an adversary’s use of these techniques.
With a focus on M&S, U.S. Army Major David Niblick and Dr. David Bauer from the Army Evaluation Center present a case study and recommendations for developing small-scale AI solutions in “Development, Test, and Evaluation of Small-Scale Artificial Intelligence Models.” Using a model that automates an acoustic trilateration system, they highlight how even a small number of neural-networked acoustic sensors can create data sets that require extensive knowledge to interpret and understand. Also related to M&S but with a cybersecurity focus, Dr. Corren McCoy and her team of researchers from Old Dominion University and the Virginia Modeling Analysis and Simulation Center outline a framework for vulnerability management. This framework provides a personalized, rank-structured approach to mitigating cyber vulnerabilities that offers significant improvement over the generalized Common Vulnerability Scoring System.
Finally, Dr. Anthony Rhem provides a pragmatic approach to using AI/ML in knowledge management and information-sharing operations. Advocating for quality data and the ethical use of AI/ML systems, he creates an ethically grounded, AI/ML-enabled framework leaders can use to assess the health of their organizations.
As our contributors have demonstrated, the future of AI and ML is now! Scientific curiosity and human intuition have brought us to the dawn of a promising future in which collecting, analyzing, and aggregating digitized data play an important role in defense operations. The applications for AI/ML are vast, and the contributions are limitless. As I close this letter, I look forward to witnessing how the DoD and its partners in industry and academia can harness the power of AI/ML while remaining true to the spirit of American ideals.
Sincerely,
1BBVA OpenMind. “The True Father of Artificial Intelligence.” https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/technology/artificial-intelligence/the-true-father-of-artificial-intelligence/, accessed on 29 May 2024.
2U.S. DoD. “DoD Adopts Ethical Principles for Artificial Intelligence.” https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/2091996/dod-adopts-ethical-principles-for-artificial-intelligence/, accessed on 29 May 2024.