Three-year ‘GhostPlay’ Project to Examine Automated Decision-Making
A three-year project, funded by the German MoD’s Centre for Digitisation and Technology Research, is investigating “the extent to which military operations and decisions can be accellerated by AI, and what opportunities and risks arise from this,” according to a Hensoldt statement on 4 November. The company leads a consortium with Hamburg’s Helmut Schmidt University to tackle this complicated question.
“Among other things, it will be examined how AI-based decision support can support the sensor-effector network of a swarm of unmanned systems in complex missions to suppress enemy air defences, and how the interaction of the individual components of a defence system can be optimised […] At the same time, the ethical aspects that need to be taken into account will be investigated,” the company stated.
Hensoldt’s experience using AI to evaluate reconnaissance data, and with networking sensors and effectors, is being leveraged in the project, which will be taking place in a simulated environment. Also taking part are 21Strategies GmbH, whose expertise includes using AI-based algorithmic decision-making in finance and defence; Borchert Consulting and Research AG, which is developing the scenario as well as strategy and concepts; and the Fraunhofer Institute for Communication, Information Processing and Ergonomics, which is examining sensor data fusion and technology considerations.