Sitrep: MOD needs to close AI gap between 'rhetoric and resource', but change needed

The Ministry of Defence needs a "very different model" if UK defence is not going to be left behind when it comes to AI and take a risk if it wants to succeed.

That is the view of James Black, assistant director of the Defence Team at RAND Europe, who joined Professor Michael Clarke on this week's episode of the Sitrep podcast – which analyses the top defence stories of the week and is available wherever you get your podcasts.

Mr Black said one of the key changes the MOD needs to make is adopting a "fundamentally different approach to both procurement but also your relationship with industry".

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"AI, like any software, is something that is built iteratively," he said.

"It's about having a long-term iterative relationship feedback between the military end users and then the data scientists and the tactical people who are updating the AI models."

Mr Black acknowledged this is a "very different model" and one that comes with lots of risk – something that is easier to swallow in a wartime state.

"You can push through some of these bureaucratic and cultural barriers if you're someone like Ukraine facing an existential threat," he said.

"Because you recognise that the risk of inaction is greater than the risk of action."

Prof Clarke agreed with Mr Black's view, adding that "neither the civil service nor the military can compete with industry".

"Industry knows more about the technical side of that than the MOD ever will," he said.

It comes after a report from the Defence Select Committee said the Ministry of Defence needed to embed artificial intelligence (AI) throughout defence.

The committee also warned that the MOD needed to act before adversaries took advantage with the technology.

Mr Black said while it is not "all doom and gloom", the inquiry by the Defence Select Committee made it clear there was a "say-do gap".

"We need to close the gap between some of the rhetoric and the resource and really kind of mainstream AI rather than… it being a novelty," he said.

"We have to stress the pace of technological change here.

"This is not something that's moving at a linear pace, it's moving exponentially."

Mr Black added that the MOD is not "necessarily the most agile" and there is a real risk adversaries could get ahead.

"And there's a real risk that, you know, some of our competitors get ahead of us.

"It's not just about 'we need to do more in order to get a new advantage'," he said.

"It's 'we need to do more just to kind of keep up with the parity with some of our key competitors and allies'."

You can listen to Sitrep wherever you get your podcasts, including on the BFBS Forces News YouTube channel.