Until now, the National Guard, which coordinates the military’s response to tornadoes, floods, earthquakes, and wildfires in the United States and its territories, has relied on humans to scrutinize aerial imagery to identify specific areas, buildings, and infrastructure. had to rely on analysts. After a disaster, damage occurs before the right resources are in the right place.
Patel said tasks that previously took hours or days now take just seconds. He said he expects the technology to become even more important. “As climate change affects different parts of the Earth’s surface, [Defense Department] It’s drawing me in,” Patel said. “Unfortunately, that trend is only going to increase.”
Bellwether’s collaboration with the National Guard shows how closely Silicon Valley is aligned with the Department of Defense. Military funding and space programs were essential to getting Silicon Valley up and running in the 1950s and 1960s, but few high-tech founders in recent decades have founded companies with the purpose of serving the military. DIU was founded in 2015 with the goal of bridging this gap, breaking through bureaucratic procurement processes and finding ways for the technology industry to work more closely with the Department of Defense.
More recently, a new wave of Silicon Valley tech companies, including drone maker Anduril and AI company Shield AI, have turned to patriots aiming to arm the U.S. military to maintain military supremacy throughout the 21st century. He disguised himself as an enemy and has begun building technology specialized for the military. Venture capital funding for defense technology startups is increasing.
Google has a checkered history with the US military. In 2018, the company terminated a contract to build AI image recognition tools for the Department of Defense after employees protested the contract. But since then, the company has steadily returned to the military business, becoming one of four companies awarded a massive $9 billion contract to build cloud services for the Department of Defense.
Spokespeople for DIU and Google X said the AI would only be used within the United States and its territories, and only for disaster response, not military operations.
