When we think of artificial intelligence, we think of the Pope in a down jacket, this famous photo generated by Midjourney a year ago, which has since made the rounds on social networks. We think less about drones, supercomputers, or weapons systems. We are wrong, because the rise of artificial intelligence is causing an earthquake in defense. And France, in the field, has serious assets to put forward to emerge in the leading pack of this new technological race.
In reality, our officers have been interested in AI for a long time, as evidenced by the notoriety of our French start-ups (Preligens, Comand AI, Helsing, etc.). In 2018, mathematician Cédric Villani already issued recommendations for the military and intelligence fields, in his report on artificial intelligence. We had to wait six years to see these come to fruition. In the meantime, the war in Ukraine and the appearance of ChatGPT served as catalysts, and the birth certificate of military AI has finally been published. It’s simple: without AI, there is no viable defense! This is how Sébastien Lecornu, Minister of the Armed Forces, summarizes the effort undertaken by France, with the announcement in an interview with Echoes the creation of a Ministerial Agency for Defense AI (Amiad) and a supercomputer.
This new structure will bring together around fifty people this summer (300 eventually), including researchers, engineers and soldiers. Determined to become the military champion of AI in Europe, France sought the boss of this future agency from the pool of former Google Deepmind employees, one of the best AI laboratories in the world.. Why so much attention? Quite simply because, far from being a fad, AI will not only revolutionize the functioning of private companies and civil administration, but also that of war operations and our Ministry of Defense. Faced with the United States, at the forefront on the subject, but also with China or tomorrow with India, France has no other choice but to align its data, its talents and its financing to modernize its armies . Not only is the cost (300 million per year) not outrageously high, but it even remains reasonable compared to that of our military equipment (Rafale, etc.).
The object of all fantasies, AI is frightening, and its irruption into the military field will hardly reassure: we can already imagine robots in electronic jackets advancing day and night on the battlefields. Hence the growing desire to regulate military AI. For the moment, there is no control. Implementing one would be common sense, but would also reveal a certain amount of naivety: no authoritarian regime would do so. While it is important to limit the military uses of AI, it is especially urgent to leave the field of research in this area free. To stay strong, you have to give yourself the means.
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