The Japanese Ministry of National Defense announced a policy to apply AI in the military to solve the shortage of human resources and improve combat capabilities.
The policy was announced by the Japanese Ministry of Defense on July 2 in the context that the Self-Defense Forces are facing many recruitment challenges because of the aging population and the ability to exploit the power of technology. new.
Defense Minister Minoru Kihara emphasized that AI has the potential to become one of the key technologies to help Japan overcome these challenges.
The new policy focuses on 7 priority areas for AI applications, including: detecting and identifying targets using radar and satellite images, collecting and analyzing intelligence information, as well as in military vehicles. Driverless.
The application of AI is expected to help Japan improve combat speed, reduce human errors, and save manpower and labor costs.
Japan's move comes as the US is considering using AI to integrate different systems and process huge amounts of data to improve decision-making processes.
Meanwhile, China is also making efforts to apply AI to modernize its military, especially in unmanned weapon systems. Therefore, Japan needs to urgently adapt to new combat methods and operate more effectively.
Defense Minister Minoru Kihara noted that AI has the potential to be one of the technologies that can overcome Japan's challenges of an aging and declining population.
However, the new policy also acknowledges the potential risks of using AI, such as data errors and bias. Implementation therefore needs to comply with government guidelines on the use of AI, while also considering international discussions on risk mitigation.
The policy also affirms that humans still play a decisive role in the application of technology: “AI supports human judgment, and human participation in its use should be ensured, suggests the government Japan has no intention of developing fully automatic lethal weapons systems.
In addition to the priority areas mentioned above, AI will also be applied in a number of other areas such as command and control, cybersecurity, logistics support, as well as helping to improve the efficiency of administrative work.
Along with promoting AI applications, Minister Kihara announced a new initiative to strengthen cybersecurity capabilities for the Ground Self-Defense Force. Accordingly, Japan will organize a new exam to select and train new recruits to become commanders in the field of cybersecurity right from the military recruitment stage, including personnel exchange with the private sector. .
Japan's push to apply AI and cybersecurity in the military has been mentioned in the National Security Strategy and Defense Force Construction Program that the Japanese Cabinet approved in 2022, according to The Japan News .
