AI Articles and Analysis in Government

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.

As we've done with our article on AI at the top 5 US defense contractors, this report discusses the artificial intelligence initiatives at the top four military defense contractors of Israel by revenue. Although Israel is a nation just 70 years old, it possesses one of the most modern militaries in the world.

Due to the popularity of our recent report on AI at the top 5 US defense contractors, we decided to broaden our scope of AI in the world's militaries. This report attempts to illuminate the current artificial intelligence projects at Europe’s largest private defense contractors.

In the past decade the number of people killed by natural disasters each year has ranged from as low as 14,389 in 2015 to as high as 314,503 in 2010, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Every year over 100,000,000 people are also affected by natural disasters. Government, companies, and aid organizations are all working to keep these tragic deaths as low as possible. One tool they have turned to for help in recent years is search and rescue robots.

wikiMany of the pivotal technologies utilized by the public today have their roots in military projects. The internet’s first successful message transfer was due to a U.S. Department of Defense-awarded contract in 1969 for the development of the “ARPANET project.” Global Positioning System (GPS) technology utilized in smartphones today was put in place and created in the 1970s for accurate military positioning, coordination, and tracking.

Lockheed Martin offers numerous artificial intelligence solutions to the US military. The company claims to help military operators effectively complete both routine and critical missions with less risk of endangering the lives of military operators. In 2017, Lockheed Martin reported $51 billion in revenue, $35.2 billion reported from contracts with the US Government. This makes Lockheed Martin the largest contractor for the US military and the largest defense contractor in the world.

Event Title: Artificial Intelligence - Reshaping National Security

Event Host: United Nations (UNICRI), Shanghai Institutes for International Studies