DARPA funds next-generation AI

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has announced a $2 billion campaign focusing on driving advancements in artificial intelligence.

The multiyear funding will be put toward research in what the agency called the "third wave" in AI, which would result in AI that is better able to adapt to different contexts. The "AI Next" campaign will look at "how machines can acquire human-like communication and reasoning capabilities, with the ability to recognize new situations and environments and adapt to them," DARPA chief Steven Walker said at a Sept. 7 tech event.

The funds will go toward new and existing programs, according to the announcement, with a broad focus on those that automate Department of Defense back office processes to programs that explore next-generation AI algorithms.

Existing programs that will be part of this effort include Communicating with Computers , which seeks to push forward how humans and machines collaborate; Explainable Artificial Intelligence , an effort to make AI less of a black box; and Radio Frequency Machine Learning Systems , which is looking into ways to use machine-learning techniques in the radio frequency spectrum.

"In today's world of fast-paced technological advancement, we must work to expeditiously create and transition projects from idea to practice," Walker said.

This story originally appeared in FCW's sibling publication GCN.