The United States military is testing its battlefield effectiveness by experimenting with OpenAI’s generative AI tools. According to an Indian Express report, the United States Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Army Research Laboratory (DEVCOM ARL) experimented with OpenAI’s GPT-4 Turbo and GPT-4 Vision models within a military wargame simulation video.
With the help of generative AI tools, the US Army created a simulated battlefield terrain with details on enemy forces and friends. The primary objective of the AI chatbot was to eliminate all enemy forces and capture a particular point on the battlefield. The AI chatbot users were given multiple courses of action, which were further refined upon request. The AI-generated simulation video showcased how OpenAI models can be utilised for combat testing as it refines the course of action and output on the battlefield. However, the OpenAI models caused more casualties than other generative AI tools.
Over the years, the US military has been enhancing its operations by incorporating AI. In 2017, the Pentagon started Project Maven, which aimed to bring artificial Intelligence into the battlefield, primarily to identify targets from satellite images. According to an Associated Press report, the US Army started using AI in special operations in November last year to create a fleet of expendable and fully autonomous AI-powered vehicles by 2026.
The last hurdle for OpenAI’s generative AI tools usage for military purposes in the US was abolished, in January this year, when OpenAI quietly changed its policy. The startup has been collaborating with the US Department of Defense on cybersecurity tools. Then on March 6, the US awarded a 178 million USD contract to a company known as Palantir Technologies, to develop and provide an AI technology to enable “targeting information for long-range precision fire”.
Why it matters?
This development represents a global shift towards AI usage for military purposes as seen in Gaza and Ukraine where the Israeli military and the Ukrainian army used AI against the Hamas terror group and the invading Russian military forces respectively. In India too, the need for AI usage in the armed forces was felt, prompting the Indian Defence Ministry to create a Defence AI Council (DAIC) in 2019, for the adoption of AI in the Indian military.
However, the paradigm shift towards adopting AI for military usage is a cause for concern as the Indian data protection law doesn’t include publicly available personal data, which could be used to train AI generative tools to target people. Furthermore, autonomous reconnaissance systems and the personal data of security personnel could be compromised if AI is used for combat by the Indian military. The use of AI to augment existing violent apparatuses such as the police and the military is another area of concern.
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