Pentagon Signs Deal to "Deploy AI Agents for Military Use"

The Pentagon has signed a deal with AI company Scale AI, in an initiative it's calling "Thunderforge," to use AI agents for military planning and operations. The team-up, described as a "flagship program," is a notable development given how divisive the topic of the use of AI in warfare has proven — and how many of the tech's nagging shortcomings have yet to be meaningfully addressed. Yet the encroachment of AI tech within the military has been unmistakable. Both Google and OpenAI have walked back rules forbidding the use of their AI tech for weapons development and surveillance, showing that Silicon Valley is opening up to the idea of having its tools be used by the military. Just last month, a senior Pentagon official told Defense One that the US military was looking to move away from funding research on the topic of autonomous killer robots and investing in actual AI-powered weaponry instead. And it goes beyond the Pentagon. Late last year, OpenAI also announced a partnership wi ... Read full article.