Skip to Content
Artificial intelligence

The Pentagon is putting billions toward military AI research

September 10, 2018

DARPA, the US Defense Department’s research arm, will spend $2 billion over the next five years on military AI projects.

Is that a lot? That depends. In the realm of AI research, it’s a huge chunk of change—China, for example, made waves earlier this year when it announced it was putting a similar amount of money behind an AI-focused research park in Beijing. The Pentagon, though, functions on a different scale—$2 billion isn’t quite enough to buy 20 of its shiny new F-35 fighter jets

The focus: The initiative, announced Friday, is being billed as a way to form better partnerships between machines and humans. DARPA said new projects will focus on things like security clearance vetting, improving the reliability of AI systems, and exploring explainable AI. Notably absent from the press release: any mention of autonomous weapons.

The subtext: The new funding comes in the wake of strong Silicon Valley pushback against working on military AI programs (see “Google won’t renew its military AI contract”). Some researchers are taking the announcement as DARPA saying, in effect, that if Google won’t accept its money, that’s no problem. It’ll find someone else that will.

This article first appeared in The Download, our daily tech newsletter. Sign up here.

Deep Dive

Artificial intelligence

Large language models can do jaw-dropping things. But nobody knows exactly why.

And that's a problem. Figuring it out is one of the biggest scientific puzzles of our time and a crucial step towards controlling more powerful future models.

OpenAI teases an amazing new generative video model called Sora

The firm is sharing Sora with a small group of safety testers but the rest of us will have to wait to learn more.

Google’s Gemini is now in everything. Here’s how you can try it out.

Gmail, Docs, and more will now come with Gemini baked in. But Europeans will have to wait before they can download the app.

Providing the right products at the right time with machine learning

Amid shifting customer needs, CPG enterprises look to machine learning to bolster their data strategy, says global head of MLOps and platforms at Kraft Heinz Company, Jorge Balestra.

Stay connected

Illustration by Rose Wong

Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review

Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.

Thank you for submitting your email!

Explore more newsletters

It looks like something went wrong.

We’re having trouble saving your preferences. Try refreshing this page and updating them one more time. If you continue to get this message, reach out to us at customer-service@technologyreview.com with a list of newsletters you’d like to receive.