Defense Official Sees More Opportunities to Harness AI’s Potential

Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a 2024 Wash100 awardee, said that while the Department of Defense has made a lot of progress in adopting artificial intelligence, it should do more to advance how the technology supports various operations.

Speaking at a Special Competitive Studies Project-hosted AI and national security conference, Brown shared that large language models improved how the MHS Genesis system sorts through digital medical records.

According to Brown, he sees more potential AI applications now that the DOD has a better understanding of the technology, Defense One reported.

At a panel discussion during the Ash Carter Exchange and AI Expo, Michael Collins, the acting chair of the National Intelligence Council, said AI provides an opportunity to refine intelligence gathering processes for policymaking.

He explained that AI can enable the agency to understand the factors why a human being decides to perform a certain action.

Collins noted that such an AI application would not eliminate a human analyst in the loop to provide “the best objective insight possible to the policymaker.”