DARPA Flies AI-Enabled F-16s

By Olawale Abaire, Warrior Editorial Fellow

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is working to refine and advance applications of artificial intelligence (AI) that the Defense Department can increasingly rely upon by flying AI-enabled F-16s. This concept, often referred to as zero- trust, aligns with efforts to increase the reliability of AI to ensure it can perform as needed across a wide range of contingencies. A key portion of DARPA’s focus on trustworthiness is about creating systems that perform well and ensuring that these systems can be relied upon to make decisions that align with human intent and ethical considerations. This is particularly crucial when AI systems are tasked with making recommendations that could lead to life-or-death outcomes.

One of the reasons AI development is such a priority is to prevent an unexpected breakthrough in technology, or “strategic surprise,” by enemies who might also be developing advanced capabilities. DARPA aims not only to prevent such surprises but also to create its own strategic surprises.

DARPA has long been at the forefront of technological innovation, particularly in the defense. One of their most critical objectives today is the development of artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous systems that warfighters can trust implicitly, especially when lives are at stake.

Matt Turek, the deputy director of DARPA’s Information Innovation Office, emphasized the importance of this goal during a recent event at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

To accomplish these goals, DARPA is actively seeking transformative capabilities and ideas from industry and academia. One of the ways the agency acquires these capabilities and ideas is through various types of challenges where teams from the private sector can win prizes worth millions of dollars.

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