Special Operations Command Pacific (SOCOM Pacific) has launched its first-ever artificial intelligence boot camp in an effort to familiarize officials with the potential of this technology in everyday tasks, according to the organization’s commander.
Inertia and Ignorance: The Main Obstacles
„The reasons why AI adoption has been difficult for us are, firstly, because we are creatures of habit,” Maj. Gen. Jeffrey VanAntwerp said Tuesday at AFCEA’s TechNet Indo-Pacific conference in Hawaii, quoted by Breaking Defense. „A lot of us have been doing this for 20 or 30 years, we’ve developed workflows and processes, and we fear change. We don’t want to do something different. It seems inefficient at first. At first, potentially, we don’t even trust it. We don’t trust the results. The second reason, I think, is just as important, if not more so, is that we don’t know how. We don’t know how to do the new thing.”
INDOPACOM Transforms into an AI-Enabled Command
VanAntwerp emphasized that Indo-Pacific Command has no choice when it comes to adopting AI, noting that the commander, Admiral Samuel Paparo, has directed that INDOPACOM become an AI-enabled command.
Intensive Boot Camp for Leaders
This week’s AI boot camp will bring together directors and deputy directors for four days, with experts teaching them how to make sense of some of the large language models that the command has in its top secret, secret, and unclassified enclaves.
Expert Enthusiasm, a Catalyst for Change
VanAntwerp said he hopes that the enthusiasm of the experts and others coming in will „infect” the directors and deputy directors to be a catalyst within headquarters as they use AI, given that it is an incredibly powerful tool.
AI: Assistant, Not Decision-Maker
However, he clarified that AI will not be the decision-maker, but will serve as an aid in decision-making.
Crucial Technologies for the Region
Other important technologies for the region include the combination of robotics, autonomy, and networks, which will enable the command and control of these capabilities.
„The combination of these three things – robotics, autonomy, and resilient networks – we believe is absolutely crucial for us. As I mentioned, the ability to disrupt our adversaries’ ability to target us, this is the oxygen we need to operate in this theater,” he said.
Lessons from China
Lessons on how China approaches emerging technology and uses sensors to process information from the sea floor to space are instructive for how US and allied forces will need to succeed in the region.
„The really important part… is that all that information you gather is great, but it’s meaningless if you can’t transport it somewhere where you can then make a coherent picture out of it,” VanAntwerp said. „If we can’t understand what’s going on and don’t have the ability to make a coherent picture out of that information, which requires a resilient network, then it will ultimately be meaningless, or you will just have disparate elements that operate without being aware of their role in the bigger picture.”
