The Department of Defense’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced a $2 billion investment in developing artificial intelligence with the launch of a program called AI Next.
“With AI Next, we are making multiple research investments aimed at transforming computers from specialized tools to partners in problem-solving,” Steven Walker, DARPA director, said last week at DARPA’s D60 Symposium in National Harbor, Maryland. “Today, machines lack contextual reasoning capabilities, and their training must cover every eventuality, which is not only costly, but ultimately impossible. We want to explore how machines can acquire human-like communication and reasoning capabilities, with the ability to recognize new situations and environments and adapt to them.”
AI Next is essentially the third wave of AI technology. The initiative will seek to address the limitations of first and second wave AI technologies. Specifically, DARPA will explore ways to make it possible for machines to adapt to changing situations. In other words, the agency will look to push beyond second-wave machine learning techniques towards contextual reasoning capabilities.
Over the next year, DARPA plans to announce specific programs to advance the state of the art in AI. Some of the areas that may be explored include automating critical DOD business processes, such as security clearance vetting; improving the reliability of AI systems; enhancing the security and resiliency of machine learning; and pioneering the next generation of AI algorithms and applications, such as “explainability” and commonsense reasoning.
“In today’s world of fast-paced technological advancement, we must work to expeditiously create and transition projects from idea to practice,” Walker said.