Using AI to Analyze Russia’s Aging Submarines Could Give Department of Defense’s Nuclear Surveillance an Edge
Using AI to Analyze Russia’s Aging Submarines Could Give Department of Defense’s Nuclear Surveillance an Edge
Using artificial intelligence as a direct or indirect way to commit mass murder is deeply troubling, but there might be ethical ways to integrate the tech into a modern military for surveillance.
“Google Will End Its ‘Evil’ Partnership with the U.S. Military, But Not Until 2019.” This headline, published by Live Science in the summer of 2018, marked a significant shift in the tech giant’s stance. Employees at Google had voiced discomfort with their work being used in military conflicts or autonomous weaponry. The terminated contract dealt a blow to Alphabet’s A.I. portfolio, with Google employees scoring a win against company executives profiting off their research.
Using artificial intelligence as a direct or indirect way to commit mass murder is deeply troubling, but there might be ethical ways to integrate the tech into a modern military for surveillance.
A.I. is Already Revolutionizing Chemistry & Heating Up Geopolitics
U.S. companies like Google Deepmind, Microsoft, Nvidia, and smaller competitors continue to bring President Joe Biden’s tech-driven economy into focus. These companies’ dominance over the emerging A.I. scene can be gleaned through trade restrictions issued by the U.S. Treasury against China’s quest for high-tech chips. Not only are investors and tech analysts talking about chips, but they’re also talking about A.I. chips and supply chains. This comes right when Biden’s tariffs and trade restrictions on chips further isolate Chinese industries, and tensions among both countries rise.
Last year, Google DeepMind published a groundbreaking research paper that has already fundamentally changed how we approach chemistry and even how industries might build future components for electronics. Using a tool called GNoME, DeepMind researchers said they identified new materials.
In November, Deepmind wrote, “Today, in a paper published in Nature, we share the discovery of 2.2 million new crystals—equivalent to nearly 800 years’ worth of knowledge.” Scientists working on the discovery said they trained GNoME to predict the stability of theoretical and undiscovered materials, focusing on the success rate of synthesizing them in a lab. Use cases include advanced chips for electronics, different types of crystals, lighter parts for aircraft, and alternatives to plastics.
The implications are vast.
Underwater Acoustics (Classified)
Weeks ago, after Russia’s Black Sea Fleet suffered losses to unmanned Ukrainian drone attacks in the Black Sea, a number of vessels sailed to Havana, Cuba, for a five-day visit. The fleet’s Admiral Gorshkov and a nuclear-powered submarine arrived in the Caribbean Sea and were photographed at different stages of their journey.
While in Cuba, up-close photos of Russia’s fleet appeared online. One of the visiting submarines is a K-561 Kazan, a Yasen-class nuclear-powered vessel. As Russia used its fleet as props for propaganda, the show of force revealed significant damage to the submarine’s soundproofing outer hull.
A damaged submarine creates more drag, which creates disturbances and noise underwater. The Department of Defense could use the new images to analyze the ship’s defective stealth capabilities. Artificial intelligence models could play a pivotal role in understanding how the submarine’s hull interacts with a liquid medium, including scenarios that account for salinity, temperature, and depth.
The United States boasts a quieter, stealthier fleet of nuclear-powered submarines. Although media reports about Russian Navy movements began weeks ago, U.S. intelligence agencies have likely been closely monitoring all these vessels for months. U.S. surveillance capabilities for tracking the Russian Navy include satellite imagery, classified underwater acoustic arrays, and the world’s most advanced hypersonic stealth planes. This surveillance comes from the sky or through analyzing hours of oceanic sounds and anomalies.
Images showing a breached Russian submarine with damaged stealth capabilities could mark the first time in months that U.S. intelligence agencies have gotten a side-view of its adversary’s aging naval fleet.