Marine Corps general: DOD will make 'bold bet' on AI

ANNAPOLIS, MD -- Citing the "keeper" of IBM’s famous computer Watson, a Marine Corps official predicted the Defense Department is going to make a "bold bet" on artificial intelligence.

"I think we’re going to attempt to take off on artificial intelligence," Maj. Gen. David Coffman, expeditionary warfare division director in the office of the chief of naval operations (N95), told attendees at an expeditionary warfare conference here yesterday.

He said John Kelly, an IBM computer scientist whose team supported Watson, argued that "a man and a machine will always beat a man or a machine." Coffman added that he does not want to take human beings "out of the loop" for warfighting missions such as mine countermeasures.

"In this area, [DOD is] already there in a lot of ways with man-machine teaming," Coffman said. "But I think the trick is where is the man?  Where is he at in the loop?"

Kelly spoke at the Marine Corps’ General Officer Symposium earlier this year, where he asserted the era of programmed computers had ended and the era of cognitive computing had begun, according to Coffman. He discouraged the Marine Corps from pursuing autonomous machines that lack the judgment of cognitive computers.

Watson gained national attention in 2011 when it appeared on the "Jeopardy" television quiz show and defeated Ken Jennings, who had previously won 74 consecutive games.