The U.S. Navy has revealed that it is exploring the potential of artificial intelligence in information warfare.
The service plans to utilize AI in maritime operations centers, or MOCs, to go through massive amounts of data collected from various sensors, Defense One reported Thursday.
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Preventing “Cognitive Overload”
According to the Navy, information warfare officers tasked with processing the information rapidly and effectively and disseminating it to the fleet are faced with huge quantities of intel data that may cause “cognitive overload.” The Navy is collaborating with the Defense Intelligence Agency, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the chief data and AI office in the Pentagon and other agencies to create a common intelligence picture based on reliable data to enable MOCs to perform faster analysis and provide insights for decision-makers.
Potential Hurdles for AI Use
According to Vice Admiral Karl Thomas, deputy chief of naval operations for information warfare and director of naval intelligence, one potential challenge to AI use is the accuracy and trustworthiness of the data source. He said they need to know how to determine if the data source is reliable and how to fuse all the information.
The top naval intelligence official also said there are concerns that the capabilities of commanders to pivot during operations may be affected by the “fight from the MOC concept.” He stressed that connectivity issues may pose a problem, particularly in the Indo-Pacific area.
“I really do think there’s opportunity space here with AI, but AI has the challenges of the data source has to be trusted and curated. And so there’s clearly a lot of work going on in AI, in the world of [intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance], in the world of PED, but we’re working through that still,” said Thomas.