United States Pentagon Plans To Spend $2 billion In AI

Source: TechCrunch

On Friday, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced that it would be making a $2 billion investment in artificial intelligence (AI) systems over the next five years. The investment will look to inject AI into U.S weaponry and DARPA Director, Dr. Steven Walker, explained that they "want to explore how machines can acquire human-like communication and reasoning capabilities, with the ability to recognize new situations and environments and adapt to them.” Although the investment amount is not large compared to other program funding, the investment is the largest the Pentagon has ever approved for an AI program and is similar to the amount the US invested in the Manhattan Project in the 1940s that resulted in nuclear weapons (not accounting for inflation). 

DARPA also described the program as an effort to enhance "the security and resiliency of machine learning and AI technologies, reducing power, data, performance inefficiencies and [exploring] ‘explainability'." DARPA is not the only Pentagon program receiving funding for AI, and the administration of Donald Trump is creating a new Joint Artificial Intelligence Center to assist in the coordination of AI-related programs occurring within the Defense Department. 

China announced earlier this year that it intends to become the global leader in AI by 2030. 

Click here and here to read the articles discussion the investment.