The Ministry of Defence (MOD) has confirmed its commitment to integrating artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning across its operations, highlighting their potential to enhance both workforce and military efficiencies.
In response to parliamentary questions from David Reed, Conservative MP for Exmouth and Exeter East, Maria Eagle, Minister of State for Defence, outlined the department’s use of frontier technologies. She explained:
“The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is actively leveraging machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance operational efficiency and effectiveness across both the Armed Forces and the Department.”
On the civilian side, the MOD is trialling AI applications such as informational chatbots, machine learning tools, and generative AI to streamline routine administrative tasks and accelerate policy work. Eagle noted:
“We work closely with partners across Government to identify and apply best practices and understand where these tools can support workforce efficiencies.”
For military operations, AI is being explored to improve effectiveness and safety. According to Eagle:
“AI is also being considered for a range of military applications, including helping to accelerate operational tempo; strengthening the Force through greater mass, persistence, and reach; enabling us to operate in environments that would otherwise not be possible; removing our people from harm’s way; and making our workforce more effective.”
In a related question, Emma Lewell-Buck, Labour MP for South Shields, inquired about the appointment of the MOD’s Capability Lead for AI Talent and Skills. This role, central to driving the department’s AI initiatives, was previously referenced in an April 2024 parliamentary response.
Eagle confirmed the post was filled in June 2024 and emphasised early successes:
“The individual has made some good early progress working collaboratively with Digital Skills for Defence (DS4D), the Defence Academy Shrivenham, and other relevant stakeholders.”
So an AI chatbot is going to increase mass….is this gibberish or is it just me?
No. It’s not you. The letters AI are used like a magic incantation by those who don’t understand it. It’s just another call on the power of buzzwords.
They only explicitly mentioned chatbots in the civilian side of things and I’m guessing it’s the military side where they are hoping to increase mass.
I’ve no idea what sort of stuff the civilian side does but maybe the hope is that by pre-screening forms, emails and even phone calls for various requests and wherever possible processing them without needing to put a human in the loop will reduce costs and potentially improve some services in terms of response times.
On the military side of things I suppose one mass-enhancer might be the assumption that designing and building a weapons system without needing to accommodate crew (no concerns about climate control, noise and vibration mitigation, maybe smaller because no need to allocate crew compartment space etc) is cheaper than a similar (in terms of armament) system with crew so every £1 gets a bit more firepower deployed. Another mass-enhancer might be increasing availability by providing engineers with AI diagnostic and information tools to help them resolve issues faster.
I was actually involved in a project way back in the early 1980s, during a previous period of AI hype where expert systems were all the rage, trying to do exactly that (provide maintenance & diagnostic aids). The technology really wasn’t up to the task at that time and most of the projects in my opinion delivered pretty much zero or even negative benefit in all but a few very narrow niche cases (or at least that’s my perception from those times) but maybe 40+ years later those early 1980s aspirations might be able to be turned into reality.
AI can already enhance the speed of decision making, but how is that mass? In practice, large drones often require more people to run than crewed aircraft. Perhaps the hope is that AI will be used to reduce that trend. AI isn’t just chatbots. It can confer a certain level of autonomy on military systems, but in the case of combat mass and lethality we choose not to go there, prefering to keep a person in the loop. It’ll take a long time before the reality catches up to the hype.
All sounds very Terminator and will the future be robots shooting at each other while we play them as computer games!?