The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has announced the development of an artificial intelligence (AI) decision-making tool that it claims will keep Britain “one step ahead” of global threats.

The ‘predictive cognitive control system’ is being developed by Gloucestershire-based Montvieux and is funded by the Defence Innovation Fund. According to the MoD, this AI tool can provide intelligence analysts with potential “areas of interest” or “anomalies” before an incident occurs; thus allowing the military to react and contain a potential terrorist attack or military strike.

Britain’s AI project will enable it to simultaneously carry out tasks that are far beyond the ability of analysts. Through Deep Learning-based neural networks, Britain’s military AI will be able to make “confidence-based predictions of future events and outcomes of direct operational relevance to Defence Users”.

This AI project sounds strangely similar to Project Maven, however. Google supplied open source deep learning technology to the Department of Defense as well as engineering expertise and assistance as part of the project. The worrying potential of AI in a military capacity was raised during this controversy, which included so-called “signature strikes” and “pattern-of-life strikes”.

These strikes targeted people based on probabilities and the observation of habits and communications from afar – as opposed to on-the-ground intelligence gathering. Intelligence analysts thousands of miles away were given points of interest and, in turn, examined footage to establish its potential use in intelligence operations.

Cashing In On UK Tech

Judging from the description of this AI project, the MoD plans on following suit with its own predictive intelligence gathering program that will likely send shivers down the spine of anyone who has watched Minority Report, The Terminator or a myriad of other Sci-Fi films.

However, the reality is that the United Kingdom is under immense pressure to keep up with international rivals – and allies – who are all dabbling in artificial intelligence and robotics.

The British Military has placed a strong focus on the development of robotics and AI in recent years, and has been funnelling money into tech startups for some time. Around £80 million per year is poured into the UK tech scene by the the MoD as it looks to capitalise on innovation across a number of sectors.

Two senior British Army officers even travelled to Silicon Valley in 2018 to observe and connect with startups offering valuable military technology. General Sir Chris Deverell, officer in command of the Joint Forces Command, and Lieutenant Colonel Henry Willi toured the iconic heartland of America’s tech scene to “explore how artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, data analytics and autonomy could be used to bring advantage to the joint force”.

Keeping Pace

This year, the MoD’s publication on artificial intelligence, titled Human-Machine Teaming, set out a vision for what AI could mean for the British military and highlighted that the UK is falling behind in the race to militarise robots.

According to the report, it claims that the Ministry of Defense is being restricted in its ability to innovate and attract companies to work with, stating: “Some Western commercial entities have publicly declared policies stating they will not contract with defence or security agencies which may compound the challenges facing the MoD.

“This is in stark contrast to other states which have enshrined access rights to expertise, technology and data in their national legislation.”

To counteract this tech-deficit, the report suggested that: “The MoD could maintain a register of security cleared UK nationals with AI and robotics skills.” This suggestion bears strong similarities to the MoD’s current practices in regards to cybersecurity. GCHQ and other organisations already maintain a selection of cybersecurity specialists with whom they can coordinate with.