The US Army’s Southern Europe Task Force Africa (SETAF-AF) used artificial intelligence technology to improve planning processes in a war game to test crisis plans last month. This exercise utilised Maven, the Pentagon’s flagship artificial intelligence project launched in 2017.
Artificial Intelligence Accelerates Decision Making
The war game, part of a deployment readiness exercise in Vicenza, Italy, aimed to test the command’s response to real-world crises. Robin Kuo, SETAF-AF strategist and planner, said that AI helps planners search for organised data, answer doctrinal questions and create simulation prototypes.
Kuo said that by incorporating Maven into their processes, their teams are able to “better manage data and improve decision support” and that AI can “support faster and more informed decisions”. Artificial intelligence offers the ability to process larger amounts of data to create scenarios and evaluate outcomes than historically expensive computer simulations and labour-intensive tabletop games.
Artificial Intelligence Interruption Scenario in Wargaming
While the exercise took place in the format of a typical military war game, the potential vulnerabilities of artificial intelligence were also explored. The game tested a scenario in which the AI suddenly becomes unavailable if the enemy cuts communication links. “If AI is absent or suddenly disabled or offline, how do we implement it?” Kuo asked about this scenario, noting that the team is “focused on creating decision-driven data, not data-driven decisions”.
Robin Kuo, an Army reservist, used his commercial experience to make Maven more user-friendly for wargame participants.
Air Force Also Turning Towards Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence is becoming indispensable for military war games. In August, the US Air Force issued a Request for Information (RFI) on war games that can “simulate high-intensity conflict conditions to stress-test training and engagement lines and explore continuity in high-loss situations”. The Air Force aims for AI to generate scenarios, inject events, respond to player decisions and perform post-game analyses.
However, researchers from the RAND Corp. warned that if AI is used as a substitute for human judgement, “a dangerous information mirage will ensue” and emphasised that AI should only help the wargaming community to expand its influence.
