AI is Coming for the Army, and TBH, It’s About Time

The Army’s talking a big game about becoming a “data-centric” force by 2030. What does that even mean? Well, according to some brainiacs over at War on the Rocks, it means fusing human brains with AI to make better, faster decisions on the battlefield.

Mission Command: Old School vs. New School

So, the Army’s all about this concept called “mission command.” Basically, it’s about giving the troops on the ground the freedom to make decisions without waiting for orders from high command. It’s all about trust, understanding, and letting people do their jobs.

But now, we’re throwing AI into the mix. We’re talking algorithms that can analyze terrain, assess threats, and spit out recommendations faster than any human ever could. Sounds cool, right? But it also sounds like we’re one step closer to Skynet.

AI: The Ultimate Wingman?

The idea is that AI won’t replace mission command. It’ll augment it. Think of it as the ultimate wingman. You tell the AI what you want to accomplish, and it figures out the best way to do it. It’s like having a super-smart staff officer who never sleeps and never complains.

But here’s the catch: it only works if the AI understands what you’re trying to do. That means we need to feed it a ton of data and make sure it has the same “contextual reference points” as the soldiers on the ground.

Adapting to the Algorithm Age

So, how do we make this happen? According to those War on the Rocks guys, here are a few things we need to do:

1. Get our data in order. We need to figure out how to capture, process, and store all the data we’re collecting. We need to know what data is important, and we need to make sure it’s available when and where we need it.
2. Reinvest in education. We need to teach soldiers the basics of AI and data literacy. Everyone needs to understand how this stuff works, not just the tech guys.
3. Train for the future. We need to use synthetic environments and digital twins to simulate the chaos of the modern battlefield. We need to stress-test our decision-making and build trust in our AI systems.

The Bottom Line

Look, I’m not gonna lie. This whole AI thing is a little scary. But it’s also full of potential. If we can figure out how to integrate AI into mission command, we could become a truly unstoppable force.

But it all starts with education. We need to teach our soldiers how to use these new tools and how to think critically about the data they’re getting. Otherwise, we’re just gonna end up with a bunch of expensive toys that we don’t know how to play with. And that, my friends, would be a disaster.

Photo by Sander Sammy on Unsplash