By Jim Morris, Warrior Vice President, News
One of the big names in artificial intelligence is broadening its relationship with the Pentagon.
The US Army has awarded Palantir Technologies a $480 million contract to continue work on its Maven Smart System through 2029. Maven takes in data from various sources , such as radar systems and infrared sensors, to identify targets and speed up the work of intelligence analysts.
Palantir has been working on Maven since 2018, when Google gave up the project. Maven is one of the AI tools the military is using to enable its Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control system, which is designed to help commanders make better and faster decisions.
Still, like a lot of issues involving artificial intelligence, Maven is not without controversy. Some critics have said that using AI could mean lead to lethal attack decisions being made with very little human oversight.
Palantir is a Denver-based corporation funded in 2003 by billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel, who co-founded PayPal and was the first outside investor in Facebook. Palantir’s first major investor was the CIA’s venture capital arm. The company was once described as the war on terror’s secret weapon.
In March, Palantir won a $178 million contract from the US Army for a next-generation intelligence ground station. The company said the Tactical Intelligence Targeting Access Node system will use artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies to gather data from space, aerial and ground sensors.
The US military has been ramping up its use of artificial intelligence in weapons systems.
Many military and industry innovators are experimenting with AI-enabled systems to defend against drone swarms. These systems are able to identify targets in milliseconds and pair sensors with effectors to more quickly find and take out groups of drones.
And earlier this month, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall took a test flight in an experimental F-16 that was controlled by artificial intelligence (a “safety” pilot was flying in the back seat).
