Machine Learning Could Be Weaponized In Fight Against ISIS
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
Deep learning machines could help decode ISIS as a network and develop strategy for defeat.
The use of deep learning machines could help the Pentagon decode the structure of ISIS as a network and allow for a more precisely, developed strategy for its defeat, according to Pentagon Deputy Secretary Robert Work. He was making the case for using artificial intelligence (A.I.) for open-source data crunching, Inverse.com reported.
“We are absolutely certain that the use of deep-learning machines is going to allow us to have a better understanding of ISIL as a network and better understanding about how to target it precisely and lead to its defeat,” said Secretary Work, according to DoD’s website.
Speaking at an event organized by the Washington Post, Work said he had his epiphany while watching a Silicon Valley tech company demonstrate “a machine that took in data from Twitter, Instagram, and many other public sources to show the July 2014 Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 shoot-down in real time.”
The U.S. government is placing its money on the ability of software algorithms to sort through the massive amount of data in order to identify ISIS targets that would otherwise elude identification, and to allow them to disrupt anticipated attacks before they are carried out.
According to Work’s spokesperson, Cmdr. Courtney Hillson, Work believes Orbital Insight, a geospatial data firm, can help with the process. Work also met with Planet Labs Inc., a satellite firm founded by ex-NASA scientists.
“It has become easier for big data scientists to aggregate data from multiple sources quickly into a common repository, deriving insight at speed and scale,” Bob Stasio, a former cyberspace specialist at the National Security Agency official, told FCW. “This concept has become increasingly important as it applies to ISIS, as they operate in a global network across hundreds of digital platforms in many languages.”
The Pentagon also recently divulged it has been using cyberattacks in the fight against ISIS as well, NewsYac reported. Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, revealed plans to escalate these cyberattacks, providing new details about how the Pentagon is using digital weapons as part of Washington’s fight against ISIS.
According to Carter, the U.S. is “looking to accelerate” its cyber operations against ISIS to disrupt the groups “command and control, to cause them to lose confidence in their networks, to overload their network so that they can’t function.” Dunford explained that such operations are used jointly with bombings and other military actions to “both physically and virtually isolate” the group and limit its ability to coordinate with fighters.
One challenge that the Department of Defense faces is it is lagging behind technologically, allowing its targets to succeed in the battles. To counter this reality, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Pentagon's R&D arm, has ramped up its spending on big data projects with one analysis finding that DARPA's big data investments grew from around $97 million in fiscal 2014 to over $164 million in fiscal 2016.