Pentagon Wants 'Thinking Machines' As Soldiers

Photo: Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work (left) speaks with New York Times editor Tom Shanker at the Reagan National Defense Forum

National Defense: Pentagon Will Develop ‘Thinking Machines’ to Defeat Future Enemies

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — Ultra-smart computers and robots that crunch data at the speed of light will be key ingredients of the Pentagon’s strategy to deter and defeat future military adversaries.

“We already started to make investments,” said Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work.

The specifics of how the Pentagon might use these advanced technologies and how they will be acquired will not be known for years, Work said, but the Pentagon today is convinced that using computers to aid decision making is a “big idea.”

Autonomous computers that can collaborate with human brains will be central to what the Defense Department calls its “offset strategy” to ensure technological dominance for the coming decades, Work said Nov. 7 during a talk at the Reagan National Defense Forum at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. He threw around catchphrases like “human machine collaboration” and “combat teaming” to describe this vision of the future.

WNU Editor: I sometimes wonder if this pursuit of artificial intelligence is a bridge too far. But the Pentagon is definitely dedicated in achieving this goal .... regardless of the cost.