In Ukraine, civilians are valiantly assisting the army via apps—and challenging a tenet of international law in the process
AS RUSSIA CONTINUES its unprovoked armed aggression, reports from Ukraine note that the smartphones in civilians’ pockets may be “weapons powerful in their own way as rockets and artillery.” Indeed, technologists in the country have quickly created remarkable apps to keep citizens safe and assist the war effort—everything from an air-raid alert app to the rapid repurposing of the government’s Diia app. The latter was once used by more than 18 million Ukrainians for things like digital IDs, but it now allows users to report the movements of invading soldiers through the “e-Enemy” feature. “Anyone can help our army locate Russian troops. Use our chat bot to inform the Armed Forces,” the Ministry of Digital Transformation said of the new capability when it rolled out.
Naturally, the Ukrainian people want to defend their country and aid their army in whatever ways they can. But certain uses of digital technology pose fundamental challenges to the traditional distinction between civilians and combatants in modern times. Read More
Tag Archives: DoD
Pentagon’s New AI Chief Vows to Crack ‘Bureaucratic Inertia’ on Tech Advances
The Pentagon’s new head of artificial intelligence wants to speed up technological modernization after an onslaught of what he calls “valid” criticism from recently departed senior leaders who expressed frustration at slow progress.
Craig Martell, who was previously head of machine learning at Lyft Inc. and Dropbox Inc. and led AI initiatives at LinkedIn, told Bloomberg News in his first interview since starting his job as the Pentagon’s chief digital and artificial intelligence officer that he wanted to make progress despite the department’s labyrinthine “bureaucratic inertia.” Read More
Pentagon announces new leadership for chief digital, AI office
The Pentagon’s new Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) has hired nearly a dozen senior leaders to serve in its top positions — and met its June 1 deadline to reach full operating capability, FedScoop learned Wednesday.
This news comes nearly six months after the Department of Defense launched a major organizational restructure to place a number of technology-driving components under this newly established office, with the ultimate aim to better scale digital and Al-enabled capabilities across its massive enterprise.
“Following a multi-step process from [initial operating capability] to FOC the CDAO has fully merged and integrated the former component organizations of Advana, Chief Data Officer, Defense Digital Service, and Joint Artificial Intelligence Center. Legacy component names will no longer be recognized or used unless attributed to a product or capability specific to the department,” according to a statement from CDAO’s spokesperson. Read More
Preston Dunlap, the Pentagon’s first Chief Architect Officer, resigns
It’s almost time to pass the baton.
25,000 miles per hour is fast.
But that speed is necessary to defy the gravitational pull of the earth.
Defying gravity is hard, but not impossible.
Similarly, driving innovation and change in a large organization – let alone the largest organization on the planet, the Department of Defense – is hard, but not impossible.
I’ve spent the last 3 years working to defy gravity and get desperately needed technology into our operators’ hands.
Some of that technology was previously unimaginable. Read More
Artificial Intelligence: An Accountability Framework for Federal Agencies and Other Entities
As a nation, we have yet to grasp the full benefits or unwanted effects of artificial intelligence. AI is widely used, but how do we know it’s working appropriately?
This report identifies key accountability practices—centered around the principles of governance, data, performance, and monitoring—to help federal agencies and others use AI responsibly. For example, the governance principle calls for users to set clear goals and engage with diverse stakeholders.
To develop these practices, we held a forum on AI oversight with experts from government, industry, and nonprofits. We also interviewed federal inspector general officials and AI experts. Read More
Meet the NSA spies shaping the future
For someone with a deeply scientific job, Gil Herrera has a nearly mystical mandate: Look into the future and then shape it, at the level of strange quantum physics and inextricable math theorems, to the advantage of the United States.
Herrera is the newly minted leader of the National Security Agency’s Research Directorate. The directorate, like the rest of the NSA, has a dual mission: secure American systems and spy on the rest of the world. The budget is classified, a secret among secrets, but the NSA is one of the world’s largest spy agencies by any measure and Herrera’s directorate is the entire US intelligence community’s biggest in-house research and development arm. The directorate must come up with solutions to problems that are not yet real, in a world that doesn’t yet exist.
In his first interview since getting the job, Herrera lays out the tech—and threats—his group will now be focusing on. His priorities show how much the NSA’s targets are changing, balancing its work surveilling terror groups with an appreciation of how rapidly the geopolitical landscape has shifted in recent years. And he explains why the rise of new technologies, in terms of both threat and opportunity, are at the heart of what his group must contend with. Read More
AI Researchers Portal
Connecting AI researchers to Federal resources that can support their AI work – from grant funding and datasets to computing and testbeds. The National AI Initiative Office’s official site for AI researchers to access datasets, computing resources, and federal grant information. Read More
#artificial-intelligence, #dod, #icResponsible AI Guidelines
As part of its mission to accelerate adoption of commercial technology within the Department of Defense (DoD), the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) launched a strategic initiative in March 2020 to integrate the DoD’s Ethical Principles for Artificial Intelligence (AI) into its commercial prototyping and acquisition programs. Drawing upon best practices from government, non-profit, academic, and industry partners, DIU explored methods for implementing these principles in several of its AI prototype projects. The result is a set of Responsible Artificial Intelligence (RAI) Guidelines. Read More
#dod, #ethicsThis Group Pushed More AI in US Security—and Boosted Big Tech
The National Security Commission on AI included members from Oracle, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon. Some of its recommendations are already federal law.
ORACLE, GOOGLE, MICROSOFT, and Amazon are archenemies in the competitive cloud computing market. But in late 2018, top executives from the four companies, including future Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, teamed up on an unpaid side gig: advising the president and US Congress on how artificial intelligence can bolster national security.
The executives were named to the National Security Commission on AI, created by Congress. Its chair was Eric Schmidt, previously CEO of Google, who later said it would help the US “harness this transformative technology to benefit both our economic and national security interests.” Read More
Google Wants to Work With the Pentagon Again, Despite Employee Concerns
Three years ago, the company walked away from a Defense Department project after employees objected to it. Now the company is working on a new proposal for the Pentagon.
Three years after an employee revolt forced Google to abandon work on a Pentagon program that used artificial intelligence, the company is aggressively pursuing a major contract to provide its technology to the military.
The company’s plan to land the potentially lucrative contract, known as the Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability, could raise a furor among its outspoken work force and test the resolve of management to resist employee demands.
In 2018, thousands of Google employees signed a letter protesting the company’s involvement in Project Maven, a military program that uses artificial intelligence to interpret video images and could be used to refine the targeting of drone strikes. Google management caved and agreed to not renew the contract once it expired. Read More
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