American stealth fighter jets (Reuters)
Bloomberg quoted an American defense official as saying that the United States used artificial intelligence to identify the targets it hit with air strikes in the Middle East during this month.
The agency stated that machine learning algorithms helped narrow the range of targets for more than 85 US air strikes on February 2, according to Schuyler Moore, chief technology officer at the US Central Command, which manages US military operations in the region.
She pointed out that the US Department of Defense (the Pentagon) confirmed that these strikes were carried out by American bombers and fighter aircraft against 7 facilities in Iraq and Syria.
Moore said - in an interview with the agency - "We were using computer vision to identify places where there might be threats... We have certainly had more opportunities to target in the last 60 to 90 days."
He added that the United States is currently searching for a "huge number" of missile launchers for enemy forces in the region.
Bloomberg confirmed that the US Army had previously admitted to using computer vision algorithms for intelligence purposes, but Moore's new comments represent the strongest known confirmation that the military uses the same technology to identify targets to be bombed.
The US defense official pointed out that the targeting algorithms were developed within the framework of Project Maven, a Pentagon initiative that began in 2017 to accelerate the adoption of artificial intelligence and machine learning in all aspects of the ministry’s work and to support defense intelligence, with a focus at the time on prototypes for fighting ISIS elements. Islamic country.
He stressed that American operators take seriously their responsibilities and the risks of artificial intelligence making mistakes, and said, "There is never an algorithm that just works, reaches a result and then moves on to the next step. Every step must be monitored by a human."
Source: Bloomberg