China Solves ‘Black Box’ Problem in Military AI

By deploying AI technology, Chinese scientists have conquered the air combat system’s smartness. They supplied answers to the problem of the “black box,” which had multiple intelligence institutions in both the USA and China worried. 

Overcoming the Black Box Issue

Addressing the problem known as the black box issue is essential to exploring AI’s prospects.Traditionally, AI technologies had been operating like black boxes and the humans had no idea about the decision-making processes behind tasks. With this shortcoming of no transparency, there are two issues happening, first it greatly affects the trust in AI but also there is a problem with communication when this happens between human and machine, which, can be serious, like impossible. 

Dong Zhang, followed by Associate Professor Zhang from Northwestern Polytechnical University, has led a Chinese research team to accomplish an AI combat system that can express its decision and reasoning through speech, statistics, and pictures. This technology is a game changer as it makes the AI to explain the meaning of each directive in real-time combat situations and hence, it fosters deeper interaction between human pilots and the intelligent machines. 

Enhanced performance and communication

 By providing appropriate means of feedback, human pilots can analyze in detail the AI decisions executed after a confrontation, thus enhancing its learning from errors and allowing it to evolve and elevate its performance for future battles. 

The interactive method used in this case has shown the best results by the AI achieving almost 100% win rate in the simulated battles with significantly fewer training rounds than the classical black box AI systems. 

 The future military setting of  AI with transparent technology can hardly be insufficiently related to such implications as military strategy and operations. In the same manner, the boosting of understanding and communication between human pilots and AI devices, China will soon gain the edge in armament competition, thereby unifying already agitated future air combat dynamics. 

US response and future developments

 US Air Force has also been trying to pilot AI capabilities in air combat, they run into the same problems as the black box. While the offices of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) are working to put pilots’ concerns at ease through the use of AI in a gradual manner and demonstrate trust in its work, there is a general mistrust of its functionality. Chinese success highlights that the US should hurry to develop its own AI to be on the level with the others in the new military technology. 

While there are geopolitical tensions, still this allows for a very robust scientific collaboration between Chinese and international colleagues. Therefore, the novel algorithm exchange and framework interpretation show AI research and development in a non-bounded space that ignores geopolitical borders to facilitate the advancement of AI and technology., the ethical implications and the dangers of AI-driven warfare are still being talked about by some experts, who are warning against the losing of human traits and machines.