Artificial intelligence (AI) promises to be disruptive and even game-changing technology, one that is already being embraced by the United States military – albeit cautiously. This week, the United States Air Force and United States Space Force announced the launch of a new AI tool that can be utilized by service members to determine how the technology can be used to aid in routine tasks, including producing reports, computer coding, and addressing IT issues.
Dubbed the Non-classified Internet Protocol Generative Pre-training Transformer (NIPRGPT), the tool could help provide a greater understanding of how AI can improve access to information.
“NIPRGPT is a critical bridge to ensure we get the best tools we have into our team’s hands while larger commercial tools are navigating our intense security parameters and other processes,” said Alexis Bonnell, Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) chief information officer. “Changing how we interact with unstructured knowledge is not instant perfection; we each must learn to use the tools, query, and get the best results. NIPRGPT will allow Airmen and Guardians to explore and build skills and familiarity as more powerful tools become available.”
According to the AFRL, NIPRGPT is part of the Dark Saber software platform developed at its Information Directorate in Rome, NY. Dark Saber is an ecosystem used by U.S. Air Force Airmen and U.S. Space Force Guardians from across the Department of the Air Force. It brings together innovators and developers and equips them to create next-generation software and operational capabilities deployable to the department at a rapid pace.
NIPRGPT uses an AI chatbot that allows users to have human-like conversations to complete various tasks. The CAC-enabled GenAI tool was developed to answer questions and assist with tasks such as correspondence, background papers, and code, all within a secure computing environment.
“Technology is learned by doing,” added Chandra Donelson, DAF’s acting chief data and artificial intelligence officer. “As our warfighters, who are closest to the problems, are learning the technology, we are leveraging their insight to inform future policy, acquisition and investment solutions.”
Similar to the U.S. Navy’s Amelia
It was a year ago that the U.S. Navy began to roll out an AI assistant dubbed Amelia. It was developed to answer questions and complete repetitive tasks. It is just one of several initiatives underway within the Department of Defense (DoD) to introduce AI to help streamline the work done by overburdened AI teams.
“The military is no different than any other organization,” technology industry analyst Roger Entner of Recon Analytics told ClearanceJobs. “Gen AI can help with many routine tasks.”
The Early Days of Military AI
NIPRGPT will feature user feedback opportunities to help develop governing policies and enable informed conversations with vendors as the DAF works to incorporate these tools into its operations, the AFRL further noted.
The current testing is focused on key metrics, including computational efficiency, resource utilization, and security compliance, among others. This will help the services understand GenAI’s practical applications and challenges and ensure that future implementation is effective and efficient.
“AI is very good at doing a lot of tasks that people find tedious and annoying, so it should be ideal for this use except for one large problem, the tendency to hallucinate,” explained Rob Enderle, founder and principal analyst at the Enderle Group.
“So, assuring the quality of the result will require extra oversight otherwise the reports the AI generates will be nicely formatted and cleanly written, but potentially untrustworthy,” Enderle told ClearanceJobs. “The quality control part of this effort will be critical to assuring that this tool while eliminating annoying and time-consuming tasks, does not create an even more serious problem of significant inaccuracies.”
