The U.S. military is increasing spending on a secret research effort to use artificial intelligence to help anticipate the launch of a nuclear-capable missile, as well as track and target mobile launchers in North Korea and elsewhere.
The effort has gone largely unreported, and the few publicly available details about it are buried under nearly impenetrable jargon in the latest Pentagon budget. But U.S. officials told Reuters there are multiple classified programs underway to explore AI-driven systems to better protect the United States against a nuclear strike.
If the research is successful, such computer systems would be able to think for themselves, scouring huge amounts of data, including satellite imagery, with a speed and accuracy beyond the capability of humans, to look for signs of preparations for a missile launch, according to more than half a dozen sources, including U.S. officials. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because the research is classified.