With increased speed, enhanced force and lower cost, the application of artificial intelligence (AI) on weapons will define the next generation of warfare, Gary Butler, founder of Starkville-based tech company Camgian Microsystems, told Starkville Rotary Club members Monday afternoon.
Butler, a Mississippi native, has been working on advanced technology for roughly 20 years, with a focus on sensor systems and AI-based technologies, according to his LinkedIn page. Over the years, he has worked on system development with the U.S. military and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Camgian, which he founded in 2006, has provided research and development service to several government and financial agencies.
With years of experience researching AI technology and its military use, Butler said the application of the technology in weaponry seems the natural step. Historically, inventions such as gunpowder, artillery and nuclear bombs have defined the geopolitical power around the globe, he said. And now, AI can help humans breach their own limits.
“Considering today’s arsenal weapons, they all have one thing in common. And that is to say that they are all controlled by ‘human in the loop,’ which limits their effectiveness in terms of speed, cost, liability, performance and scale,” he said. “… Moving from human intelligence to machine intelligence will have a profound impact and effect on the future development of military systems.”
To showcase the power of AI, Butler presented club members with a video of an AI solving a Rubik’s Cube. With four robotic arms turning the cube at high speed, the AI completed the process within roughly a second.
Similarly, compared to human-operated weapons, AI-based and unmanned weapons can carry out the same mission within much less time, Butler said. They also strike with increased accuracy and force, he said, and at the same time, the application of such technology is rather inexpensive.
“We’ve seen the cost of computing come down at a radical pace,” he said. “Now likewise, with AI, the transition from human intelligence to machine intelligence will follow a very similar path of cost and adoption. … That cost will come down and its adoption will also scale.”
Countries around the world are developing AI-based technologies for military use, Butler said. In the United States, such technologies have been used in Iraq and Syria, and further research is underway, according to a Congressional Research Service report in August.
“It’s really about speed and force,” Butler said of the power of AI. “We can have one … man pilot, we can have 10, 15, 20 unmanned drones that are flying in squadrons with him.”
Other countries are selling the technologies to adversarial countries to the U.S., Butler said. China, he said, has developed an unmanned aircraft named “Blowfish” and is selling the weapon to countries in the Middle East.
“It’s an autonomous helicopter that’s like a drone that is armed with different forms of munitions. … And when these systems are combined in swarms, such technologies can be, as you could imagine, quite formidable on the battlefield,” he said. “… Today, one of the most pressing national security issues is the emergence of lethal autonomous drones used against U.S. forces operating overseas.”
To counter AI-based attacks, Butler said he is currently working on a defensive system that can “detect, track, ID, assess, defeat” in milliseconds.
“We are actually on schedule to deploy our first version of this system overseas for operational testing,” he said. “(These systems) will be deployed on vehicles and small units and also in full-operating bases.”
The importance of AI technology, Butler said, cannot be underestimated.
“AI is the next revolution in warfare and will define the future balance of geopolitical power in the world,” he said. “The AI arms race has most certainly begun.”
Yue Stella Yu was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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