The UNSW Professor of AI on the responsible use of AI in the military, the areas of AI that excite him, areas of concern and AI "everywhere" at UNSW.
Toby Walsh, Laureate Fellow and Scientia Professor of Artificial Intelligence in the School of Computer Science and Engineering, recently returned from NATO’s 50th birthday Summit in The Hague. There, he participated – as a commissioner – in a meeting of the Global Commission on the Responsible Use of AI in the Military.
“The commission looks at how we're going to deal with the change that AI is bringing to the way we fight wars,” Toby said.
“AI is rightly called the ‘third revolution’ in warfare – the first was the invention of gunpowder by the Chinese, and the second the invention of nuclear weapons. AI is the future of warfare – you just have to look at what’s happening in Ukraine to see that.”
The commission – comprising 12 international commissioners – meets frequently online and four or five times a year in person. It provides recommendations to governments around the world, as well as input to the United Nations (UN), NATO, and elsewhere. The commissioners include policy, military and technical people, like Toby, as well as international relations experts and lawyers, all looking at the different dimensions of the responsible way to use AI in the military.
Toby said while there are significant challenges, there are already significant benefits from using AI in the military. As well as mundane uses in terms of logistics, there are examples like the mine-clearing robot Data61 is building here in Australia.
“This is a perfect task for an AI-powered robot, because you wouldn't want to risk anyone's life clearing a minefield if you can get a robot to do it,” Toby said.
“There's a considerable imperative within the military to use AI. One reason is because warfare is about information these days – it’s about being better informed than your opponent. For example, in the US they have more satellite imagery and intelligence data coming to them than they can look at, so they use AI to help them make sense of it.
“Equally, there are significant challenges, including the use of autonomy in warfare. The drones in Ukraine, for example, are increasingly controlled by algorithms not humans. And that takes us to a new place where we're handing over decisions previously only ever made by humans about who lives and who dies. Of course, that raises complex legal and moral issues about the very nature of war and what we do in war.”
Toby said he feels a significant responsibility because he is a scientist working on AI technology and wants it to be used to improve the quality of people's lives. Also, as an Australian, because “we play in this game”.
“The Australian government and military are investing considerable sums of money in this space. For example, alongside Boeing, we're building the loyal wingman autonomous fighter plane that's going to augment the capabilities of our F35. Then there’s the example of the UNSW spinout, OCIUS, and their uncrewed surface vessel (USV) Bluebottle patrolling Australian waters for months at a time powered by renewable energy.
“As an Australian, I feel we have an important role to contribute to this conversation and consensus-building around the use of AI responsibly in the military context, because we are developing significant technologies ourselves, and using them and selling them to other people.”
What areas of AI can we get excited about?
When asked about the benefits AI is bringing, Toby replied with the four Ds – AI can do “the dirty, the dull, the difficult and the dangerous”.
“Here in Australia, in terms of the dangerous, we have some of the most automated mines on the planet. There’s not just an economical benefit of keeping our mines competitive despite high wage costs, but in terms of mine safety,” he said.
Beyond the four Ds, the two areas of AI Toby is excited about are healthcare and education.
“Medicine will become precision medicine, highly personalised and highly specialised. It makes no sense at all, for example, that we give men and women the same medicines when we have quite unique biologies.
“Medicine is also becoming an information science – the latest antibiotic was discovered by AI, not humans.”
Education, Toby sees, as “a double-edged sword”. He said many are rightly concerned that GenAI is “destroying the essay and challenging the way we teach”.
“Of course, we do have to worry that it may be undermining our ability to communicate and think critically. But equally, we're going to see great innovations in the EdTech space that will allow us to lifelong learn and move with the technologies and the disruption they are bringing to our lives and workplaces.
“Also, there’s an opportunity to provide personalised education. I see great potential for providing the tools to people of all backgrounds and in all places. Of course, there are also challenges, as we discovered during the COVID-19 pandemic, where a significant and worrying number of children in Australia don't have access to any digital devices. First of all, we have to get them devices,” he said.
What are areas of concern around AI?
Toby thinks most people are concerned – and particularly Australians – about the impact AI will have on jobs.
“We do have to address concerns that this technology is going to be disruptive. In the past, disruptions created more jobs than they've taken, but there is no guarantee that will happen this time,” he said.
“I'm optimistic though that we'll generate wealth and new jobs – many of which we can't predict. You know, 10 years ago, no one was a social media influencer; 12 years ago, no one was a smartphone app developer.
“But we do have to deal with the disruption to the people whose jobs don't exist and who will need different skills. And we have to find those new jobs – and that is challenging.”
Toby said there’s a trend at the moment where it seems to be getting harder for people to get graduate entry-level jobs.
“Many of the GenAI tools are helpful doing the sorts of things that entry-level graduates did. There’s worrying data suggesting that accountancy and management consultant firms, and even software businesses, aren’t taking on as many graduates as they used to. I suspect some of this is not because of AI, but just the natural headwinds to the economy. But people may well be reassessing what people can do and what the tools can do.”
And AI at UNSW?
Toby said it was exciting when setting up the UNSW AI Institute to discover there was less AI happening in the School of Computer Science and Engineering than there was outside the school.
“AI had left the building and was now to be found in every faculty, and pretty much every school that you could think of at UNSW.
“There are fantastic examples to be found everywhere.”
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