Because the US could not provide them, the Pentagon’s technology chief Emil Michael has said the United States was unprepared for the rise of modern drone warfare and admitted that Ukraine had to develop some of the battlefield technologies it needed.
Speaking at the WSJ Tech Conference, Michael said the conflict between Ukraine and Russia exposed significant gaps in America’s military preparedness and accelerated efforts to expand the country’s drone capabilities.
Even as the Pentagon pushes into cheap, autonomous systems, Michael said the military remains conservative about using artificial intelligence in combat. Developing targets still depends more on intelligence reports, satellite imagery and other human-led investigation than on AI, he said, adding that the US is not very sophisticated at AI-generated targeting. He said it was not difficult for the Pentagon to stop using Anthropic’s models and noted that the department continues to use AI models from Google, OpenAI and Grok on its networks.
Michael also reiterated his criticism of AI company Anthropic, which the Defence Department earlier designated as a national security threat.
Beijing remains approximately six months to a year behind the United States in AI development, although he indicated that competition between the two countries remains intense, according to Michael.