US To Invest $1.5Bln To Adopt Artificial Intelligence Over Next 5 Years - Austin

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 14th July, 2021) The United States will invest nearly $1.5 billion into the adoption of the artificial intelligence (AI) technologies by the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center in the course of the next five years, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said.

"We have elevated the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center so that it reports directly to the Deputy Secretary [of Defense] ensuring that we have the focus from senior leaders needed to drive AI transformation. Over the next five years, the [US] Department [of Defense] will invest nearly one and a half billion Dollars in the efforts to accelerate the Center's adoption of AI," Austin said on Tuesday.

Austin made the comments during a conference organized by the National Security Committee on Artificial Intelligence.

The Defense Secretary underscored that the need for AI is dictated by the pacing challenge posed by China which plans to use this type of high-tech innovations in its surveillance missions and autonomous weapons as early as in 2030.

The Defense Department presently has more than 600 AI efforts in progress, which is significantly more than just a year ago, Austin said.

Austin's assessment that the United States is falling behind in terms of AI is in line with the report issued by the National Security Commission on AI in March that concluded the United States is incapable of defending itself against threats related to AI technologies and the government is not taking efforts to win a technology competition in this area.