Understanding artificial intelligence and the way it pertains to issues of national security has turn into a prime precedence for army and authorities leaders in recent times. A brand new three-day customized program entitled “Artificial Intelligence for National Security Leaders” — AI4NSL for brief — goals to teach leaders who might not have a technical background on the fundamentals of AI, machine studying, and information science, and the way these subjects intersect with national security.
“National security fundamentally is about two things: getting information out of sensors and processing that information. These are two things that AI excels at. The AI4NSL class engages national security leaders in understanding how to navigate the benefits and opportunities that AI affords, while also understanding its potential negative consequences,” says Aleksander Madry, the Cadence Design Systems Professor at MIT and one of many course’s school administrators.
Organized collectively by MIT’s School of Engineering, MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing, and MIT Sloan Executive Education, AI4NSL wrapped up its fifth cohort in April. The course brings leaders from each department of the U.S. army, in addition to some overseas army leaders from NATO, to MIT’s campus, the place they be taught from school specialists on a wide range of technical subjects in AI, in addition to navigate organizational challenges that come up on this context.
“We set out to put together a real executive education class on AI for senior national security leaders,” says Madry. “For three days, we are teaching these leaders not only an understanding of what this technology is about, but also how to best adopt these technologies organizationally.”
The authentic thought sprang from discussions with senior U.S. Air Force (USAF) leaders and members of the Department of the Air Force (DAF)-MIT AI Accelerator in 2019.
According to Major John Radovan, deputy director of the DAF-MIT AI Accelerator, in recent times it has turn into clear that national security leaders wanted a deeper understanding of AI applied sciences and its implications on security, warfare, and army operations. In February 2020, Radovan and his crew on the DAF-MIT AI Accelerator began constructing a customized course to assist information senior leaders of their discussions about AI.
“This is the only course out there that is focused on AI specifically for national security,” says Radovan. “We didn’t want to make this course just for members of the Air Force — it had to be for all branches of the military. If we are going to operate as a joint force, we need to have the same vocabulary and the same mental models about how to use this technology.”
After a pilot program in collaboration with MIT Open Learning and the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Radovan related with school on the School of Engineering and MIT Schwarzman College of Computing, together with Madry, to refine the course’s curriculum. They enlisted the assistance of colleagues and school at MIT Sloan Executive Education to refine the category’s curriculum and cater the content material to its viewers. The results of this cross-school collaboration was a brand new iteration of AI4NSL, which was launched final summer time.
In addition to offering members with a primary overview of AI applied sciences, the course locations a heavy emphasis on organizational planning and implementation.
“What we wanted to do was to create smart consumers at the command level. The idea was to present this content at a higher level so that people could understand the key frameworks, which will guide their thinking around the use and adoption of this material,” says Roberto Fernandez, the William F. Pounds Professor of Management and one of many AI4NSL instructors, in addition to the opposite course’s school director.
During the three-day course, instructors from MIT’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and MIT Sloan School of Management cowl a variety of subjects.
The first half of the course begins with a primary overview of ideas together with AI, machine studying, deep studying, and the function of information. Instructors additionally current the issues and pitfalls of utilizing AI applied sciences, together with the potential for adversarial manipulation of machine studying methods, privateness challenges, and moral concerns.
In the center of day two, the course shifts to look at the organizational perspective, encouraging members to think about successfully implement these applied sciences in their very own models.
“What’s exciting about this course is the way it is formatted first in terms of understanding AI, machine learning, what data is, and how data feeds AI, and then giving participants a framework to go back to their units and build a strategy to make this work,” says Colonel Michelle Goyette, director of the Army Strategic Education Program on the Army War College and an AI4NSL participant.
Throughout the course, breakout periods present members with a possibility to collaborate and problem-solve on an train collectively. These breakout periods construct upon each other because the members are uncovered to new ideas associated to AI.
“The breakout sessions have been distinctive because they force you to establish relationships with people you don’t know, so the networking aspect is key. Any time you can do more than receive information and actually get into the application of what you were taught, that really enhances the learning environment,” says Lieutenant General Brian Robinson, the commander of Air Education and Training Command for the USAF and an AI4NSL participant.
This spirit of teamwork, collaboration, and bringing collectively people from completely different backgrounds permeates the three-day program. The AI4NSL classroom not solely brings collectively national security leaders from all branches of the army, it additionally brings collectively school from three colleges throughout MIT.
“One of the things that’s most exciting about this program is the kind of overarching theme of collaboration,” says Rob Dietel, director of government packages at Sloan School of Management. “We’re not drawing just from the MIT Sloan faculty, we’re bringing in top faculty from the Schwarzman College of Computing and the School of Engineering. It’s wonderful to be able to tap into those resources that are here on MIT’s campus to really make it the most impactful program that we can.”
As new developments in generative AI, comparable to ChatGPT, and machine studying alter the national security panorama, the organizers at AI4NSL will proceed to replace the curriculum to make sure it’s making ready leaders to know the implications for his or her respective models.
“The rate of change for AI and national security is so fast right now that it’s challenging to keep up, and that’s part of the reason we’ve designed this program. We’ve brought in some of our world-class faculty from different parts of MIT to really address the changing dynamic of AI,” provides Dietel.