Emil Michael, Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, discusses tension between commercial AI vendors and Pentagon military operations.
Assertion Partly supported
Michael: Inherited Pentagon AI contracts created dangerous vendor lock-in
“Well, they came up now because as I started to look at the contracts that had been written during the last administration for the use of AI. I had a whole, holy cow moment because there were things not well beyond what you've been hearing in the press in the l…”
Disclosure
Michael: DOD diversifying AI vendor base following software terms dispute
“So that set off a series of events of, whoa, are we single-threaded on a vendor who's concerned about how we're using their software after the most successful military raid and the terms of service do not comport with the future world? We've got to get other p…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Michael: DOD AI adoption grew from 80k to 1.2M in 90 days
“In 90 days, I think we've had 1.2 million of the three million people at the department. Use some form of AI when that was, that number was 80,000 before I started.”
Opinion
Michael: Commercial AI constitutions cannot dictate US military command and control
“It can't, the software, the soul, someone's soul of their model, their constitution, which is not the U S constitution. Can't be dictating our command and control environment and telling generals and war fighters what to do and not do.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Michael: Four frontier AI companies rely on pool of 1,000 researchers
“You have four companies that you could call frontier companies, and then you have this sort of major league baseball roster of researchers, like a thousand who they're trading amongst themselves, who, if you ask the leaders of these companies are so incredibly…”
Assertion Supported
Michael: Google transitioned from avoiding defense work to top government partner
“Google didn't want to bid on the contract. Now Google is a great partner, you know, and so I'd hope some of the newer companies would learn from what Google did, which is, you know, they didn't want to serve the government because that employee mob issues, but…”