"In the context of unprecedented U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) budgets, this paper examines the recent history of DoD funding for academic research in algorithmically based warfighting. We draw from a corpus of DoD grant solicitations from 2007 to 2023, focusing on those addressed to researchers in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). Considering the implications of DoD funding for academic research, the paper proceeds through three analytic sections. In the first, we offer a critical examination of the distinction between basic and applied research, showing how funding calls framed as basic research nonetheless enlist researchers in a war fighting agenda. In the second, we offer a diachronic analysis of the corpus, showing how a 'one small problem' caveat, in which affirmation of progress in military technologies is qualified by acknowledgement of outstanding problems, becomes justification for additional investments in research. We close with an analysis of DoD aspirations based on a subset of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) grant solicitations for the use of AI in battlefield applications. Taken together, we argue that grant solicitations work as a vehicle for the mutual enlistment of DoD funding agencies and the academic AI research community in setting research agendas. The trope of basic research in this context offers shelter from significant moral questions that military applications of one's research would raise, by obscuring the connections that implicate researchers in U.S. militarism."

https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.17840

#AI #DoD #USA #AIWarfare #MilitaryAI #DARPA

Pete Hegseth's pastor: Wilson believes men have a sexual right to women, and has written that unsubmissive women are at fault for sexual violence committed against them. “The sexual act cannot be made into an egalitarian pleasuring party … a man penetrates, conquers, colonizes, plants. A woman receives, surrenders, accepts.” Wilson also believes that God created women “to make the sandwiches” and thinks that giving women the right to vote led to “a long, sustained war on the family.” #military #DOD #natsec #ChristianExtremism https://newrepublic.com/post/188960/pete-hegseth-gets-regressive-ideas-women

#Trump is considering FL Gov DeSantis as a possible replacement for Hegseth -as DOD Sec amid R senators’ concerns over mounting allegations re: fmr Fox News host’s personal life.

Picking DeSantis, a 2024 GOP primary rival for the pres., would amount to a stunning turn for Trump. RD: well-known conservative with a service record -shares Trump/Hegseth’s—view on culling what they see as “woke” policies in the MIL.

Ron is a fascist. He may be as bad as Hegsweth.
#USPol #DOD https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/trump-mulls-replacing-pete-hegseth-with-florida-gov-ron-desantis-8f682ad2