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1 1 (June 8, 2021)

handle is hein.crs/govedpa0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Defense Primer: Emerging Technologies Both U.S. national strategy documents and Congress's own bipartis an Future ofDefense Task Force Report have identified a number of emerging technologies that could have a disruptive impact on U.S. national security in the years to come. These technologies include artificial intelligence, lethal autonomous weapons, hypersonic weapons, directed-energy weapons, biotechnology, and quantumtechnology. As these technologies continue to mature, they could hold significant implications for congressionaloversight, U.S. defense authorizations and appropriations, military concepts of operations, and the future of war. Artificial Intelligence Althoughthereis no official U.S. government definition of artificial intelligence (Al), Al generally refers to a computer sy stemcapable ofhuman-level cognition. Al is currently being incorporated into a number of military applications, including intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance; logistics; cyberoperations; command and control; and semi-autonomous and autonomous vehicles. As itdevelops, Alcould enable newconcepts ofoperations, such as swarming (i.e., cooperative behavior in which uninhabited vehicles autonomously coordinate to achieve a task), that could presentboth challenges and opportunities for the U.S. military. Recent news reports and analyses have highlighted therole of Alin enabling increasingly realistic photo, audio, and video digital forgeries, popularly known as deep fakes. Adversaries could potentially deploy this Al capability as part of their information operations in a gray zone conflict. Deep fake technology could be used against the United States and its allies to generate false news reports, influence public discourse, erodepublic trust, and attempt to blackmail diplomats. Some have suggested thatAIcould be used to create full digital patterns-of-life, in which an individual's digital footprint is mapped against other personal information, such as spending habits and job history, to create comprehensive behavioral profiles of s ervicemembers, suspected intelligence officers, government officials, and private citizens. Similar to deep fakes, this information could, in turn, be used for targeted influence operations or blackmail. To coordinate defense-wide AIefforts, the Pentagon established the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC, pronouncedjake) in June 2018 under the Departmentof Defense's (DOD's) Chief Information Officer. In addition, the FY2019 National Defense Authorization Act (P.L. 115- 232, §1051) established a National Security Commission on Updated June 8, 2021 0 0 0 0 0 0 Artificial Intelligence (NSCAI) to assess U.S. competitiveness in Al and offer recommendations to Congress. NSCAIreleased its fnalreport in March 2021. Lethal Autonomous Weapons Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems (LAWS) are a clas s of weapon systems capable of independently identifying a target and employing an onboardweapon systemto engage and destroy thetarget without manualhumancontrol. LAWS may use computer algorithms and sensor suites to classify an object as hostile, make an engagement decision, and guide a weapon to the target. This capability could enable the systemto operate in communications-degraded or -denied environments where traditionalsystems may not be able to operate. LAWS are not yet in widespread development, and s ome senior military and defense leaders have expressed concerns about theethics ofeverfielding such systems. Forexample, in 2017 testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, then-Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Paul Selva stated, I do not think it is reasonable for us to put robots in charge of whether or not we take a human life. Currently, there are no domestic or international legal prohibitions on thedevelopment oruse of LAWS; however, internationaldiscussions-held primarily under the auspices of the United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons-are ongoing. Approximately 30 countries have called for a preemptive ban on the systems due to ethical considerations, while others have called for political declarations on or formal regulation of their development and use. DOD Directive 3000.09 establishes U.S. guidelines for the development and fielding of LAWS to ensure that they comply with the law ofwar, applicable treaties, weapon systems afety rules, and applicable rules of engagement. Hypersonic Weapons Hypersonic weapons-which fly at speeds of at least Mach 5 (five times the speedof sound)-are in developmentin a number of countries, including the United States. There are two categories of hypersonic weapons: Hypersonic glide vehicles (HGV) are launched froma rocket before gliding to a target. (When HGVs are mated with their rocket booster, the resulting weapon systemis often referred to as a hypersonic boost-glide weapon.) Hypersonic cruise missiles (HCM) are powered by high-speed engines throughout the duration of their flight. In contrastto ballis tic missiles, hypersonic weapons do not follow a ballistic trajectory and can maneuver en route to

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