AI Articles and Analysis in Government

Boeing offers a number of autonomous vehicles to the military, which it claims can help military operators effectively complete both routine and critical missions with less risk of endangering the lives of military operators. In 2017, Boeing Defense, the predominantly non-commercial division of Boeing that focuses on government contracts, reported 29.5 Billion dollars in revenue. This makes it the second largest defense contractor for the US military and the world. Boeing, established in 1916,  is a publicly traded company that employs over 120,000 people.

Episode Summary: This week, we're going to be talking about the defense sector. We interview Ryan Welsh, CEO of Kyndi, a company working on explainable AI. We focus specifically on the unique data challenges of the defense industry, as well as the general use case of AI in defense writ large. Many of the challenges that the defense sector has to deal with transfer to other spaces and sectors. Business leaders that deal with extremely disjointed text information, what is sometimes called "dark data," and information in various languages or different dialects, will be able to resonate with some of the unique challenges talked about in this episode, and maybe even gain some insights for how to handle them.

According to Accenture, approximately 66% of A&D executives polled indicated they are looking at investing in AI for 2019, particularly on security, production, and R&D. 80% believe that AI-based decisions will have a direct impact on the workforce by 2021.

This report attempts to highlight the wide array of real-world use cases of machine vision in the military. Several militaries claim to leverage machine learning, working with contractors and companies in some cases to deliver AI solutions. We found that these solutions help highlight the wide breadth of current and near-term military applications of machine vision. The companies and organizations discussed in this report help various militaries with at least one of the following:

Government interest in AI has picked up in recent years, and many government officials are starting to ask the same questions business executives were asking two or three years ago. Governments and large NGOs are starting to invest in AI, spending budget and time on pilot programs for various AI applications and discussions with people in the field on the future implications of the technology.

A discussion on AI ethics and the way AI might influence policy necessarily involves three stakeholders: world governments and policymakers, industry leaders and regulatory compliance bodies, and business executives making strategic decisions.

Event Title: Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and Decision Science in Health and Nutrition

Event Host: the World Bank Group

Event: A guest appearance at National Defense University

Date: October 24, 2018

Team Member: Daniel Faggella, Emerj CEO and Founder
What Happened
Through a variety of presentations for business and government personnel, I was put in touch with some of the leadership at the Defense Innovation Unit at the Department of Defense, which is essentially an arm of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). In talking to those folks, I was introduced to a professor at the National Defense University in Washington DC who was very interested in how to bake artificial intelligence use cases and understanding into their curriculum in order to help train military leaders on how to fruitfully leverage these technologies.