Slashdot is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
AI United States Technology

The Pentagon is Investing $2 Billion into AI (cnn.com) 49

The Pentagon's high-tech research agency laid the groundwork for the Internet, stealth aircraft and self-driving cars. Now, it's going big on artificial intelligence. From a report: At its 60th anniversary conference on Friday, DARPA announced a $2 billion investment to push the frontier of AI forward. "We think it's a good time to seed the field of AI," John Everett, the deputy director of DARPA's Information Innovation Office, told CNNMoney. "We think we can accelerate two decades of progress into five years." [...] DARPA's investment will focus on creating systems with common sense, contextual awareness and better energy efficiency. Advances could help the government automate security clearances, accredit software systems and make AI systems that explain themselves.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

The Pentagon is Investing $2 Billion into AI

Comments Filter:
  • And now we know what all the "AI hype" was for: more government handouts. Good job all around.
    • Re:And now we know (Score:4, Interesting)

      by EndlessNameless ( 673105 ) on Friday September 07, 2018 @02:10PM (#57271142)

      Are you being dense on purpose?

      They're already making money with AI. This is just going to be extra on top---and believe me, the government is a latecomer here.

      The government has finally realized that they can automate some of their most atrocious bureaucracy. The time and cost associated with background investigations and accreditation are insane.

      • Yeah, my mistake. I forgot the US government was making money with AI. Thanks!
      • by sinij ( 911942 )

        The government has finally realized that they can automate some of their most atrocious bureaucracy.

        Technically, you are using "automate" word correctly. However, in this context automate does not mean streamline or simplify. No, it means that AI will be used to come up with new forms, checklists, and to drive the process. You, my dear friend, will still have to suffer in queues, waiting list, fill pointless forms, and provide supporting evidence in triplicate to various agencies.

      • Are you being dense on purpose?

        No, he is just artificial military intelligence.

    • by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      Before the AI winter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] its springtime for contractors.
      Its an AI party.
  • You want Skynet? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by jeadly ( 602916 ) on Friday September 07, 2018 @01:45PM (#57270942)
    "we can accelerate two decades of progress into five years" Cause that's how you get Skynet.
  • Money to burn (Score:2, Insightful)

    by PopeRatzo ( 965947 )

    It's no problem. We can afford it by borrowing the $2billion from China, as part of the $700billion defense budget, piling it on the budget deficit and adding it to the national debt so we can blame the next Democratic president for the debt being too high. You don't need an AI to see where this is going.

    Deficits don't matter when a Republican is president, but like night follows day, they will become a huge issue as soon as a Democrat takes office.

    It's called the "Two Santa Claus Theory" and was created

    • Don't worry. One thing I have learned here on Slashdot and the other tech forums: the good times will never end.
  • "DARPA announced a $2 billion investment to push the frontier of AI forward".

    Well, I suppose it's (maybe) a better investment than staring at goats...

  • let's play Global Thermo-Nuclear War

  • by ljw1004 ( 764174 ) on Friday September 07, 2018 @02:53PM (#57271522)

    We know what AI means in the industry today. It means machine-learning of some sorts - putting together a parameterized classifier, training those parameters against a training data-set, and then running it against real-world input. Yes there is considerable work needed to figure out what precise things to classify, what kind of parameterized classifier to use, and to gather the training data-set. Yes it is indeed very different from coding a classification algorithm directly. Yes it will be used in impactful ways. No it's not what we colloquially refer to as "intelligence". Yes it will have blind spots that can be gamed.

    Please, I'm so tired of reading posts saying "this isn't really artificial intelligence" when we're all aware of what the industry jargon means, and all aware of the utility and limitations of the current approaches.

    • by sinij ( 911942 )
      Input:

      We know what AI means in the industry today. It means machine-learning of some sorts - putting together a parameterized classifier, training those parameters against a training data-set, and then running it against real-world input. Yes there is considerable work needed to figure out what precise things to classify, what kind of parameterized classifier to use, and to gather the training data-set. Yes it is indeed very different from coding a classification algorithm directly. Yes it will be used in impactful ways. No it's not what we colloquially refer to as "intelligence". Yes it will have blind spots that can be gamed.

      Please, I'm so tired of reading posts saying "this isn't really artificial intelligence" when we're all aware of what the industry jargon means, and all aware of the utility and limitations of the current approaches.

      Output: Terrorist detected, dispatching the killbot.

  • ... where the real AI is.

  • Again?
  • $2B + the pentagon -> an RFP for F35 wing tanks,
    $2B + DARPA -> useful stuff.
  • Currently the US is lagging in AI, China is ahead, and who knows how far Russia is. What we have happening is a cold war in AI. A space race if you will. Elon Musk has said AI research should be slowed down, and while I agree that might be better then blindly running forward, the AI bell has been rung and unless everyone slows down it's a losing proposition. The pentagon should spend the money. WAR games is a reality if only in simulations.

"Your stupidity, Allen, is simply not up to par." -- Dave Mack (mack@inco.UUCP) "Yours is." -- Allen Gwinn (allen@sulaco.sigma.com), in alt.flame

Working...