*WASHINGTON: The US military is increasing spending on a secret researcheffort to use artificial intelligence to help anticipate the launch of anuclear-capable missile, as well as track and target mobile launchers inNorth Korea and elsewhere.*
The effort has gone largely unreported, and the few publicly availabledetails about it are buried under a layer of near impenetrable jargon inthe latest Pentagon budget. But U.S. officials familiar with the researchtold Reuters there are multiple classified programs now under way toexplore how to develop AI-driven systems to better protect the UnitedStates against a potential nuclear missile strike.
If the research is successful, such computer systems would be able to thinkfor themselves, scouring huge amounts of data, including satellite imagery,with a speed and accuracy beyond the capability of humans, to look forsigns of preparations for a missile launch, according to more than half adozen sources. The sources included U.S. officials, who spoke on conditionof anonymity because the research is classified.
Forewarned, the U.S. government would be able to pursue diplomatic optionsor, in the case of an imminent attack, the military would have more time totry to destroy the missiles before they were launched, or try to interceptthem.
“We should be doing everything in our power to find that missile beforethey launch it and make it increasingly harder to get it off (the ground),”one of the officials said.
The Trump administration has proposed more than tripling funding in nextyear’s budget to $83 million for just one of the AI-driven missileprograms, according to several U.S. officials and budget documents. Theboost in funding has not been previously reported.
While the amount is still relatively small, it is one indicator of thegrowing importance of the research on AI-powered anti-missile systems at atime when the United States faces a more militarily assertive Russia and asignificant nuclear weapons threat from long-time foe North Korea.
“What AI and machine learning allows you to do is find the needle in thehaystack,” said Bob Work, a champion of AI technology who was deputydefense secretary until last July, without referring to any individualprojects.
One person familiar with the programs said it includes a pilot projectfocused on North Korea. Washington is increasingly concerned aboutPyongyang’s development of mobile missiles that can be hidden in tunnels,forests and caves. The existence of a North Korea-focused project has notbeen previously reported.
While that project has been kept secret, the military has been clear aboutits interest in AI. The Pentagon, for example, has disclosed it is using AIto identify objects from video gathered in its drone program, as part of apublicly touted effort launched last year called “Project Maven.”
Still, some U.S. officials say AI spending overall on military programsremains woefully inadequate. – Agencies