(NewsUSA)
- Artificial intelligence is likely to have a greater impact on the military’s wartime operations than on peacetime tasks, according to a new report from the Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP), a nonprofit and nonpartisan initiative with a goal of making recommendations to strengthen America's long-term competitiveness in AI.
The new report mapped 131 Military Occupational Specialties (MOS) to their closest civilian equivalents to assess the impact of AI on army personnel. Although the sample size was small and based on private sector task classification, the data provide a foundation for further study of AI in the military, the authors wrote.
“AI won’t replace the Army’s people, but it will transform how they work,” the experts emphasized.
Common AI tasks such as gathering information and identifying objects can take on life-or-death importance in a wartime setting, when actions may be simpler and more structured, thus suited to AI, according to the report. For example, infantry officers in peacetime settings currently have approximately 25% of their work affected by AI, mainly related to administrative tasks. By contrast, AI’s wartime applications, estimated at about a third of activity (33%) for infantry include situational awareness, analyzing data, gathering information, and targeted objects or events.
Based on the report, SCSP experts offered four policy priorities to help the U.S. prepare to optimize an AI-enabled military in the future.
-Lethality. Save time by using AI on automation of administrative or routine tasks, and spend it on active training and readiness for warfighting.
-Commercial Alignment. Optimize interactions with private sector counterparts by using AI to align workflows for more efficient commercial research and development, and reserve custom development for unique wartime functions.
-Combat Investment. AI’s greatest potential military application may be in actual wartime use for information gathering, situational awareness, and targeting.
-Retention. Last, but not least, AI has potential to help address the problem of burnout in the military. Company commanders work more than 12 hours a day. Using AI for routine administrative tasks “could transform quality of life for junior officers and their families; a strategic retention tool,” the experts concluded.
