PSA 008

The Algorithmic End of Intelligence Assessments

The acceleration of data across ai-driven systems will imperceptibly separate commanders from decisions in exchange for targetable information to feed an increasingly fast automated kill chain. Just what does it mean to use AI/ML in programs like TITAN in the modern force? I consider this the beginning of the gradient descent the cybernetic force has the potential to send us down.

Systems like TITAN will ingest data quickly and send targetable data to shooters in a timeframe that is operationally relevant (seconds). See it, shoot it. Whack a mole warfare was once a method of targeting that was generally taught against; even with preparation, counterfire is a losing fight. No longer. We now have the ability to strike ALL the moles, regardless of distance, and with precise speed and accuracy.

The dream of Mosaic Warfare realized

The heavy push for targetable intelligence is observably having an effect on the way operations are organized and conducted (see emerging drone warfare) and this transformation must continue as the defense industry continues to introduce tech pushing us in this direction. The kill chain must get faster, and must respond to a greater number and variety of threats. The money will take us there successfully.

Today sensors like drones or ELINT are operated by humans seeking PIRs. Tomorrow fully autonomous sensors will seek out trigger criteria to put shooters on. With an infinitely good shooter there will be a natural want for specific targets to use it on, and a diminishing want for what the greater enemy force disposition means, which will have impacts at echelon. The perfect hammer wants all the nails.

The gap here is that this will allow us to shoot exactly what we are searching for, 100% of the time. And we will miss what we are not searching for 100% of time because we will never see it coming.

Imagine an operations center. You are in a tent and cannot see the outside. You are surrounded by screens showing you data on your targets and your shooters. As the focus of operations revolves around what you are seeing, it will be increasingly difficult for commanders to think outside of the Skinner’s Box they will unknowingly be trapped in.

Truman Burbank, fighting out of the Main CP

What’s missing is the intel assessment that tells us things like intention and morale, the things a human mind must consider. Why is the why important? Given the context in which to understand the data, we can use our minds to consider what our sensors AREN’T searching for. While this may seem blatantly obvious now, I promise it will not be in the very near future. Fish simply do not know they are in water, and the why will increasingly seem to be less relevant than the what/where.

It will be of great importance to identify where human minds must be applied to the process flow-chart that our AI-based targeting systems will provide us in order to protect these blind spots. Learning to become one with the machine is necessary lest one become the machine itself.

And knowing is half the battle (the other half is violence).

Yo joe!