Microsoft Thursday Breakfast Session
Presentation Title: Information Age Warfare
Presenter: Jamie Whylly, Defence and Intelligence Solutions Lead, Microsoft
Overview: The amount of data being produced in the world today is larger than ever and increasing beyond the human capacity to process. The ability to leverage that data for destructive purposes is similarly increasing with thought-influence and attacks on critical infrastructure.
International competition and conflict are today, and will be in the future, based increasingly on information. The need to predict and act is replacing the paradigm of observing, orienting, deciding, and acting as a faster means to reach an objective. If existing combat and support forces can be trained better, and if systems can operate at higher readiness rates, the gap between existing and required forces can be narrowed. The field of Artificial Intelligence is allowing forces to develop that ability.
We see AI contributing to operations optimization in the fields of command and control, Intelligence Analysis, synthetic training, mixed reality operations, and in the methods of managing a large military force. Efficiency in the information age is not limited to the battlefield. Militaries are large organizations and the installations that support them – the posts, camps, stations, bases, and forward operating bases – must be modernized to meet the demands of the fighting force, the individual warfighter, and the civilian workforce and families.
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are offering amazing capabilities to improve the security of our world and we must embrace new technologies quickly to stay ahead.
Dependency on information means that information must be protected, cyberattacks must be defended, mitigated, and studied to understand threats and prepare appropriate responses.
Our military leaders, and the institutions that are entrusted to protect national security and the security of citizens, must embrace emerging technologies to prevail in optimizing operations and protecting the information systems on which our people and critical infrastructure depend.