Can industry help government make sense of artificial intelligence?

National security and defense officials are expressing concerns that the U.S. as a whole lacks a strategy for artificial intelligence on par with America’s competitors, so the House Armed Services Committee is engaging with key stakeholders in this space to establish an artificial intelligence commission.

Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., held a closed Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee roundtable on AI with various experts and members of industry, according to a release from the committee.

Stefanik earlier this year introduced a bill (since included in the annual defense policy legislation) seeking to develop a commission to review advances in AI, identify AI needs and make recommendations to organize the federal government for threats in AI.

RELATED

New bill would prepare US for artificial intelligence threat

Warning artificial intelligence will revolutionize warfare, a key House lawmaker has opened the pod bay doors to legislation aimed at preparing for the threat posed by intelligent machines.

By Joe Gould and Aaron Mehta

“We are encouraged by the department’s aggressive efforts with Project MAVEN, and are interested in exploring other applications of AI that combine the strengths of government, industry and academia to forge strong and lasting public-private partnerships,” Stefanik said.

“We have seen progress in Department of Defense artificial intelligence pilot programs, but now we must scale to success.”

RELATED

What the Pentagon is learning from its massive machine learning project

Project Maven has already deployed in five or six locations across Africa and the Middle East. Here's what officials are learning from those deployments so far.

By Mark Pomerleau

The roundtable included participants with expertise in small business, cybersecurity and AI best practices. Specific companies that participated included Pilot.ai, FireEye, Accenture and Boston Consulting Group.

Their participation enabled the committee to understand industry’s approach in the AI sphere, as well as opportunities and challenges.

“Artificial intelligence and machine learning are topics of regular conversation and deep interest among the members of this subcommittee,” Stefanik said.

“Over the last year, we have explored technology issues that could drastically change the way wars are fought, impacting not only our national security, but our economic security as well. Yesterday was a good next step in identifying where corollary successes exist within the commercial sector and artificial intelligence solutions have already demonstrated quantifiable results.”

More In Intel/GEOINT

Army heads into competitive flight demos for future tactical drone

The Army has awarded contracts to two companies to continue on in a competition to provide a Future Tactical Unmanned Aircraft System.

Ukraine pulls US tanks from front lines over Russian drone threats

The sidelining of the Abrams reflects evolving battlefield tactics where drone use has made it virtually impossible for them to maneuver without detection.

Opinion

Here are 4 ways to defend against unmanned ground vehicles

Like unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, UGV systems range broadly in size and mission.

Drone-killing costs must come down, says Pentagon’s chief weapons buyer

Defense companies have built and pitched everything from powerful lasers and microwaves to drones that ram their targets midair.

Opinion

How the government came to embrace good-faith hacking of its networks

Federal agencies are inoculating public IT infrastructure by not only listening to the Internet’s Immune System, but proactively inviting healthy input.