AI Articles and Analysis in Government

Northrop Grumman Corporation is a U.S. global technology company that provides autonomous, aerospace, cybersecurity, and defense solutions to military and commercial organizations.

The focus of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is to provide information to civilian institutions to help them solve scientific problems at home and in space. This requires a continuous stream of raw data under a constantly shifting environment.  According to a 2017 interview with Kevin Murphy, Earth Science Data Systems Program Executive at NASA, the biggest challenge now is not going where no man has gone before, but managing the data.

We researched the military and defense space to discover how and where AI is utilized today by the world’s militaries and intelligence organizations as well as the capabilities artificial intelligence could bring to the sector shortly.

It is clear the United States government has recently taken a strong stance in attempts to proliferate artificial intelligence technology innovations for the United States Department of Defense. There are those who believe that the US, Russia, and China have entered into a modern day Space Race-style competition to develop and harness artificial intelligence technologies.

It is clear the US military has taken an interest in exploring the capabilities of autonomous vehicles for the battlefield. Michael Griffin, Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering for the US Department of Defense, reported to lawmakers in the United States Congress that 52% of casualties in combat zones have been attributed to military personnel delivering food, fuel, and other logistics.

In this article, we’ll take a look at several military drones and UAVs with AI capabilities. There are a variety of use cases for AI when it comes to drone technology. The military seems to commonly apply AI for allowing its drones to fly on their own, which requires machine vision.

Episode Summary: One of the promises of artificial intelligence is aiding humans in making smarter decisions. Whether it's in pharma, retail, or eCommerce companies, the idea of being able to pool together streams of data and coax out the insights that would help make the best call for the organization to reach its goals is the promise of artificial intelligence. As it turns out that same dynamic is sort of happening in the public sector where AI is now being used to inform policy.
This week we interview Professor Joan Peckham at the University of Rhode Island. Previously, she was Program Director at the National Science Foundation. PhD in computer science and she runs the Data Science Initiatives at URI.

Militaries around the world are starting to make increasing investments in artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities. The top military defense contractors in the US, Europe, and Israel are all working on AI software to sell into the defense sector. That said, the military adoption of AI is as of right now slow in comparison to that of contractors.