(NewsUSA) - ChatGPT has taken the world by storm. Since its release in November 2022, OpenAI’s chatbot has scored a 1020 on the SATs, passed a medical licensing exam, successfully negotiated a user’s cable bill, and even drafted legislation for how to regulate AI. But what does ChatGPT mean for national security?
Nations want to harness AI models for economic, military, and national security advantages, according to experts at the Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP), a bipartisan nonprofit organization.
Companies worldwide are driving Large Language Models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT for a range of applications.
SCSP has used LLMs to help generate content in recent months, but LLMs not only talk about the national security landscape; they are actually starting to shape it. Some potential uses for LLMs in U.S. national security include:
LLM as interface: A ChatGPT-like LLM could be the interface through which humans access a wide range of AI-powered tools, including computer vision and robotics.
LLM as processor: ChatGPT and other emerging technologies have the capacity to enable a stronger and faster Intelligence Community across all intelligence disciplines (INTs) and phases of the intelligence cycle, and for the military across all levels of war.
LLM as decision support: Those who harness AI models as decision support tools will have an advantage. With the right combination of AI, data, modeling and simulation capabilities, and predictive insights, LLM models will game out policy options and provide analysis to human decision-makers.
Some other considerations for optimizing the power of ChatGPT:
The information landscapes: LLMs such as ChatGPT could generate unique texts at speed and scale that evade existing filtering systems. More people may question whether what they read on social media or elsewhere was generated by AI. However, LLMs are not oracles, and are only as good as the data on which they were trained.
AI vs. AI: As AI capabilities are integrated into national security, the AI of the United States will go up against that of our adversaries. We need ensure that our LLMs are the best in the world, but also that our tools are interoperable with those of our allies and partners.
The “black box” problem: As we increasingly rely on AI systems, we need a way to explain and understand why an AI system made a certain decision in order to establish trust.
Cybersecurity and code: LLMs will affect national security at a fundamental computer science level via coding, with implications for the national security apparatus, businesses, and consumers.
Moving at the speed of technology: Procurement processes and governance frameworks must be made sufficiently flexible that they can evolve at the pace of AI.
The United States has advantages at the cutting edge of LLM R&D today, according to SCSP, but long-term advantage will be shaped by the adoption of such tools.
For more information, visit scsp.ai.