Military halts use of generative AI
Some branches of the U.S. military are hitting the brakes on generative AI after decades of Department of Defense experiments with broader AI technology.
Why it matters: As businesses race to put generative AI in front of customers everywhere, military experts say its strengths and limitations need further testing and evaluation in order to deploy it responsibly.
Driving the news:
In a new essay in Foreign Affairs, Jacquelyn Schneider, the Hoover Institution's director of the wargaming and crisis simulation initiative, and AI researcher Max Lamparth write that large language models have a potentially dangerous tendency to go nuclear.
Why it matters: As businesses race to put generative AI in front of customers everywhere, military experts say its strengths and limitations need further testing and evaluation in order to deploy it responsibly.
Zoom out:
Older forms of machine learning-based AI are already deeply woven into the U.S. military, which uses it in everything from supply-chain analysis to interpreting satellite data.
Catch up quick: "The risk-taking appetite in Washington is not very great. And the risk-taking appetite out here [in Silicon Valley] is unparalleled," former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Axios at a Hoover Institution media roundtable at Stanford University this week.
Zoom in:
The military's approach to data ownership makes it hard for anyone in the Pentagon to make the case for generative AI, even the new DoD chief digital and AI officer, the experts said.
State of play: Booz Allen Hamilton on Tuesday released an open source version of its aiSSEMBLE platform, which aims to get government clients, including the DoD, out of AI "pilot purgatory" and into quicker deployment of AI.
Between the lines: Military use of AI faces challenges ranging from getting AI models to understand military jargon to concerns raised by lawyers over the handling of data, experts told Axios.
Zoom in:
The military's approach to data ownership makes it hard for anyone in the Pentagon to make the case for generative AI, even the new DoD chief digital and AI officer, the experts said.
Yes, but: Many AI critics argue that generative AI is too unreliable for social media use, let alone military applications. A slower Pentagon march toward using the new technology, in this view, is only prudent.
What they're saying: Rice said that the military only adopts leading edge technology when wartime demands force experimentation, or when "you get a few officers who are just like dogs on a bone on it."
