Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) mean that today’s new capabilities are sure to be surpassed within just a few months. At the AI Summit in London, Chief of Defense Staff and Air Force Commander Rich Knighton told attendees that today’s AI models also have the ability and potential to transform warfare.
“We can process satellite imagery, open source information, logistics, electronic signatures, battlefield reports, etc. at a scale that cannot be replicated by human command centers,” he said. “They will be able to identify patterns and anomalies and even suggest possible courses of action.”
Knighton believes AI models can help commanders understand not only what is happening now, but also what will happen next. “I don’t think we need to fast forward five or even 35 years from today to see how the battlefield of the future will be shaped by AI.”
As Knighton pointed out, various AI systems are now outpacing PhD-level experts and beginning to compete with top-level software engineers. He said the time it takes for AI to complete tasks autonomously has been dramatically reduced. “The frontier is moving incredibly fast, and we need to be prepared to rapidly update our assumptions about what AI can do every six months.”
“You can imagine what this means for defense. If we can keep up with the frontier and take advantage of new models and changes that are updated every six months or even sooner, we will have a clear advantage in the future.”
Knighton added that many of today’s AI models already have the potential to accelerate military decision-making cycles to machine speeds, removing what he called “many of the cognitive biases that plague human decision-making,” and that “even before we consider the ethical issues of using AI in war, there are both great risks and great opportunities.”
But he said Britain’s policy remains that humans, not machines, are responsible, especially for decisions about the use of deadly force. “Defense officials will continue to ensure context-appropriate human involvement in the development of any AI-enabled systems,” he said.
Looking at some of the pilots currently in service, Mr Knighton said the Royal Navy was conducting trials at sea using the experimental vessel XV Patrick Brackett. The robot’s rigid inflatable boat is equipped with cameras and sensors that feed data and video back to XV Patrick Blackett’s control unit and computer for analysis. The vessel can be equipped with other sensors and weapons and can be used for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations with real-time data feeds.
“We are leveraging AI to enable fully autonomous navigation and decision-making in unmanned vessels by fusing sensor data and providing the ability to act without human input. This is the foundational capability for growing a hybrid navy,” Knighton said.
AI is also being used to increase the effectiveness of military intelligence services to overcome what Knighton describes as “traditional processes and tools that are bottlenecks.” As a result, military analysts were able to reduce identification and response times from weeks to hours, Knighton said.
