NEAR-TERM APPLICATIONS OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

摘要

Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis made headlines in early 2018 after stating that artificial intelligence (AI) may change the "fundamental nature of war," a groundbreaking premise that could alter the principles of warfare and centuries of military thinking.~1 War has been and is meant to be a human endeavor to achieve human ends. AI poses the challenge—or opportunity—of altering that premise. The common picture of AI in warfare raises images of self-directed drones in the sky attacking targets of opportunity at their own discretion; armies of intelligent android warriors in the fashion of I, Robot; or an all-powerful supercomputer dominating humankind, reminiscent of the Terminator and Matrix franchises. While these images from science fiction portray a possible distant future, just as H. G. Wells did with The War of the Worlds, the practical applications of AI involve intricate and redundant tasks that augment human involvement and increase humankind's own abilities and productivity. Rather than replace human participation in war and national security activities, AI supports human beings to make us better at defending the country.