Even Pentagon Employees Are Worried About Machines Taking Over Their Jobs

For years, the fear of automation has been centered in the private sector, with civilian workers expressing worry and anger that robots were replacing them. Now, even those employed by the Pentagon are starting to feel anxious over the same possibilities. As the defense agency looks to using artificial intelligence to boost areas like data imagery analytics, the humans who are already doing those jobs are now afraid of their livelihood being placed on the chopping block.

Speaking recently to Foreign Policy, the director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) Robert Cardillo said that he was optimistic about the addition of smart machines into their corner. The NGA is basically responsible for analyzing photos, be it from satellites or other sources, and then forming conclusions based on that data. For example, they could warn if there is an impending terrorist activity or if there is a natural disaster on the way.

Right now, a majority of the data analysis is being done by humans who are literally going through tons of photos in order to get a feel for the broader picture. Since a lot of this is about data processing, it was perhaps inevitable that the prospect of bringing in AI would be proposed.

With machine learning and computer vision advancing at a breakneck pace in practically every corner of the tech industry, more and more jobs are now at risk of becoming obsolete. However, in the case of intelligence gathering, some experts are expressing concern about relying too much on AI.

One expert in the field who is worried about overreliance on machines is Francisco Nix. As an imagery analysis instructor in the aerospace department of Northland Community and Technical College, Nix is someone who understands the job of analyzing photos. In an email to Futurism, he writes that machines should only be an asset to help the humans, not replace them.

“The information still has to be seen by an analyst and confirmed, edited, or discarded. I think Mr. Cardillo knows this – he also knows the overwhelming information available to him and the demand for analysis. He wouldn’t be doing his job without moving forward with what AI or machine learning has to offer NGA and DoD,” the email reads.