“ChatGPT”-style software will be used to expedite the government’s review of the military, amid fears the system could be “attacked” by adversaries.
The Strategic Defense Review (SDR), announced by Sir Keir Starmer just days into his premiership, will focus on the changing nature of conflict.
As part of the review, military personnel, veterans, parliamentarians, industry, academia and the wider public were invited by the Ministry of Defense to provide submissions on a range of topics around how the armed forces are best placed to cope to the changing nature of conflicts. .
Due to the sheer number of comments, believed to be in the hundreds, AI will be enabled to sift through all comments.
Prof. Mariarosaria Taddeo, an Oxford University academic specializing in the ethics of defense technologies, told Politico: “It is not a problem if AI is used to support decision-making, but the question is whether it is used to support decision-making or that the AI is applied without any critical thinking.”
She added: “Even if the AI is internal to an organization, are we essentially creating a huge Trojan horse? AI is really vulnerable, it can be attacked.”
The Telegraph understands that the government considers such an attack to be a low-level threat because the software is stored on a MoD system, which is monitored.
A defense source familiar with the plans said the “refined language model” can answer substantive questions from the user and use the evidence submitted to formulate its response.
The source said: “It sounds like Chat GPT. In essence it is a summary tool. It doesn’t produce data for a decision, it produces and summarizes millions of words.”
As part of the SDR, participants were invited to respond to 24 questions on topics ranging from the future of defense to the culture of the services and how best to support NATO.
The answers, which were between 2,000 and 4,000 words per question for those directly involved in the defense and 500 words per question for the general public, will be entered into the AI system so that they can be discussed over the next two months .
Those sifting through the answers can ask the AI questions such as “what is the general opinion on the state of the military,” to which the software will provide an overarching answer based on all the information it has received.
The software, purpose-built by Palantir, the US data giant, which has contracted defense company Babcock to help build the Royal Navy’s new fleet of warships, will process the answers in a more digestible format.
The software marks the first time the government has used AI to assist with a major review.
It is clear that the Department of Defense believes AI technologies will transform every aspect of defense, making large data sets easier to navigate.
A Ministry of Defense spokesperson said: “We have been transparent about our ambition to use AI across a wide range of defense applications, and the team is using this technology to help assess the large number of submissions to the Strategic Defense Review (SDR) and analyze. ”
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