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US Army tests AI chatbots as battle planners in a war game simulation

Researchers in the US Army are experimenting with commercial AI chatbots as battlefield advisers in war game simulations – but experts caution that such AI should not be used in high-stakes situations

By Jeremy Hsu

5 March 2024

Starcraft II

A screenshot from Starcraft II

Blizzard Games

The US Army Research Laboratory is exploring whether OpenAI’s technology can improve battle planning – although only in the context of a military video game.

The US military has already explored using AI technologies to analyse battlefield images and even identify targets for airstrikes – but it only recently began testing large language models and other types of generative AI that empower commercial AI chatbots. In that spirit, US Army researchers examined how well such an AI chatbot could perform in a war game simulation based on the military science fiction video game Starcraft…

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