Senate Intelligence Briefing Features AI and Decision Advantage

This month’s senate intelligence meeting is probably the most important two-hour video you should make time to watch this week, especially if you are interested in the intersection between AI, DI, and national security.  Also some important cautions about Internet of Things (IOT) security.

Some important quotes:

https://youtu.be/7OVVbrTP18g?t=38m41s

Admiral Mark Rogers: “Clearly I think we are not where need to be…the challenge I think is that we have [multiple areas of knowledge and insight within the federal government and within the private sector, how  do we bring this together and create and integrated team, with some real-time flow back and forth.”

https://youtu.be/7OVVbrTP18g?t=39m57s

Admiral Mark Rogers: “I wonder how bad does this have to get before we realize that we have to do something fundamentally differently…[IOT will]…get, much much worse, exponentially from a security perspective.”

https://youtu.be/7OVVbrTP18g?t=42m37s

Senator Richard Burr: “The widespread proliferation of artificial intelligence is expected to prompt new national security concerns”

https://youtu.be/7OVVbrTP18g?t=42m40s

General Ashley: ” …when you think about artificial intelligence, our near-peer competitors are pursuing this…when you look at the volume in big data and what’s available…artificial intelligence will be integral to that….it’s more machine learning than it is artificial intelligence…we’re seeing all of our near-peer competitors investing in these technologies, because it’s getting to decision cycles earlier…”

Mark Rogers: “We are victims of our own success..the ability to access data at increased levels brings its own set of challenges…[China] there  clearly is a national strategy designed to harness the power of artificial intelligence to generate strategic outcomes…to generate positive outcomes…”

Mark Rogers: “…with the power of machine learning, artificial intelligence and big data analytics…data concentrations are a target….

https://youtu.be/7OVVbrTP18g?t=45m56s

General Ashley: “There is a key piece of this…which is how do you operationalize it….a WWII example: the fact that there were planes, radios, and tanks, was not unique to the Germans in WWII…they came up with an operational concept that allowed them to leverage that…[I asked Peter Singer]… as you look at the things that are emerging… what do you see in the way of a breakthrough that would give somebody a really marked advantage…. [Singer said it’s not that I see something that gives someone a marked advantage..].. It’s who’s able to harness it, who’s able to operationalize it, and put it to effect.

https://youtu.be/7OVVbrTP18g?t=47m19s

Robert Cardillo (from NGA):” what hasn’t changed…the mission that this whole table has is to provide you with decision advantage….What’s changed…what we used to hold exclusively…is now more shared…  So this is something that we all lock arms on, because it isn’t the access that is exclusive any more, it is the use… I have the same concerns that you do about getting the cooperation we need from these companies…  At the end of the day, we can advance the American Economy,we can adance American entrepreneurship…and get back to.. Decision Advantage.”

https://youtu.be/7OVVbrTP18g?t=2h22m59s

Senator Jack Reed: “..[China] is undertaking a significant national investment in artificial intelligence and quantum computing that is dwarfing anything that the administration is proposing or suggesting…if artificial intelligence has even half of the benefits that its promoters claim, it is going to be extraordinarily disruptive…where is our national Manhattan program for AI and quantum computing that will match the Chinese?  … [The Chinese] are generating their own intellectual property at a rate that could be disruptive and we are not matching that…billions of dollars.”

https://youtu.be/7OVVbrTP18g?t=2h26m18s

Senator Mark Warner: “Cyber…really is asymmetrical…if [you add up all the costs that Russia invested] it’s less than the cost of one UF35 airplane, pretty good bang for the buck.”

https://youtu.be/7OVVbrTP18g?t=2h26m21s

Senator Mark Warner: “We may be buying the best 20th-century that money can buy. When we see our near-peer adversaries making these massive investments in areas like AI, machine learning, quantum computing.”

This diagram (below) is as relevant as ever: the goal of the collection and analysis of data is decision advantage.  DI is a framework for taking it seriously: in government and beyond.

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