What Is Explainable AI and Why Does the Military Need It?

Last summer, the Defense Science Board’s report on autonomy found that investing in artificial intelligence (AI) warfare is a crucial part of maintaining the United States’ national security and military capability. As the report reads, “It should not be a surprise when adversaries employ autonomy against U.S. forces.” In other words, AI warfare is likely on the horizon; it’s just a matter of who gets there first.

This immediately sparks dystopian and apocalyptic reactions from most people, who may envision a Terminator-esque system that will at some point choose to overthrow its human masters. But don’t worry. We aren’t there just yet. The report concludes that “autonomy will deliver substantial operational value across an increasingly diverse array of DoD missions, but the DoD must move more rapidly to realize this value.” Meaning that while the value of autonomy is clear from a military perspective, the Department of Defense has to devote more money and time to realize its full potential — and do so quickly.

Those robots would be a result of artificial general intelligence (AGI), which is only a small area of research within AI that works on neural evolution and, perhaps in time, the creation of sentient machines. Much more prevalent, however, is machine learning (a computer’s ability to learn without being explicitly programmed) and neural nets (computer systems modeled on the human brain and nervous system) being drawn upon to augment human decision-making capabilities. Indeed, the…