TAMPA, Fla. — As the Pentagon rushes to embrace artificial intelligence, the head of US special operations called for a “reality check,” especially when it comes to using AI tools on the battlefield.
Addressing attendees at the SOF Week conference here on Tuesday, Adm. Frank Bradley acknowledged AI is “changing and impacting and making SOF [special operations forces] more efficient in many ways.”
But, he said, “We also have to have a reality check.”
“Of all the systems being employed on the battlefield today, very few, if any of them, are actually using true AI at the edge. I’m not suggesting that’s not possible. We absolutely believe it is. But we have to be very careful about how we come to its employment and its integration into the delivery of the battlefield,” he said.
“At the end of the day, the foundations upon which we go to war, upon which we use violence, are based upon the Law of Armed Conflict. That is the commander, the person, the human that decides to use lethal violence has to have trust and confidence that that lethal violence will be delivered in the confines of the Law of Armed Conflict, with distinction, proportionately and in the bounds of humanity.”
“Machines,” he said, “can’t be held accountable.”
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As such, Bradley said current trials and standards to validate emerging technologies will remain consistent and critical in the employment of AI in the future.
“We will change in the way we use these tools, but no more so than the first stone and sling thrower to the bow and arrow, the machine gun, to the aviation-delivered ordnance, to the Tomahawk land attack cruise missile to what might come tomorrow with FPV [first person view drones] and edge AI-driven targeting. But critical is that there will always be a human in the loop of that delivery of violence,” he said.
To be ready, Bradley also demanded USSOCOM be filled with operators able to handle emerging technology types including AI. Echoing an old characterization of special operators, he said his command needs “PhDs’ who can win a bar fight.”
“This digital age translates into maybe a more colloquial term: ‘Geeks with Guns.’ Again plenty of y’all out there, operators who are both lethal but also technically fluent, who can employ cutting-edge tools and the software running it and understand,” he said.
But he said even as warfighters employ high-tech capabilities like AI, they have to “remain humble.”
“No algorithm perfectly models any ‘black swan’, and the uncertainties of warfare remain something that no machine can predict,” he said.
