Kelley Sayler

Advanced military tech for Congress | Previously DOD, @CNASdc, @CSIS | Personal account/views expressed are mine alone | She/her

[Kelley Sayler @kelleysayler]

Not-so-new cheat-sheet on the Pentagon-Anthropic dispute, with a specific focus on the role of autonomous weapon systems within the dispute: https://t.co/zMwfyoyBbL

[Kelley Sayler @kelleysayler]

New CRS 2-pager on agentic AI and cyberattacks: https://t.co/6VQZNtEewX

[Kelley Sayler @kelleysayler]

New CRS piece on the realignment of DOD's Chief Digital and AI Officer + issues for Congress: https://t.co/jw2r8BLaT9

[Kelley Sayler @kelleysayler]

New CRS 2-page cheat sheet on the Army's Integrated Visual Augmentation System, an up to $22B program to develop an extended reality heads-up display: https://t.co/A6dEBMsfze

[Perry World House @perryworldhouse]

In a new piece for @WarOnTheRocks, PWH Director @mchorowitz dispels myths about U.S. policy on autonomous weapons, using insight from his time in the Pentagon where his team rewrote the directive on autonomy in weapon systems. Read more here: https://t.co/2HfkAmUYFy

[The New York Times @nytimes]

The internet is becoming awash in AI-made words and image. And they're increasingly likely to be used by AI in the future, leading to worse results. Here’s a look at what happens when a system is trained on its own output, over and over again.
https://t.co/FWjTUDQGhk

[Kelley Sayler @kelleysayler]

@mchorowitz @DOD_Policy @DeptofDefense Congrats, Mike - they were so lucky to have you!!

[Kelley Sayler @kelleysayler]

New CRS 2-pg cheat sheet, "DOD Replicator Initiative: Background and Issues for Congress," is out! https://t.co/VAPRC8PlcX

[Kelley Sayler @kelleysayler]

Rough budget request for advanced military tech and experimentation: AI ($1.8B) and CJADC2 ($1.4B) held steady; microelectronics down ($2.5B, from $2.6B in FY24); long-range fires, including hypersonics, down ($9.8B, from $11B in FY24); RDER down ($450M, from $687M in FY24)

[Kelley Sayler @kelleysayler]

Clarification: it requests information about the system's ability to navigate autonomously, but does not require that the system be able to do so.

[Kelley Sayler @kelleysayler]

Army Replicator solicitation is out, and it is perplexing to say the least. 30-min endurance, 1-5 km range, no payload capacity requirement, no mention of autonomy. Hard to see what that gets you in a China fight. https://t.co/JMUlSzs4ev

[Kelley Sayler @kelleysayler]

Army Replicator solicitation is out, and it is perplexing to say the least. 30-min endurance, 1-5 km range, no payload capacity requirement, no mention of autonomy. Hard to see what that gets you in a China fight. https://t.co/JMUlSzs4ev

[Kelley Sayler @kelleysayler]

Interestingly, it no longer contains the line "States should maintain human control and involvement for all actions critical to informing and executing sovereign decisions concerning nuclear weapons employment." Anyone have a copy of the original version? https://t.co/w1tlkZMwV3

[Lauren Kahn @Lauren_A_Kahn]

‼️‼️HUGE CBMs news! @VP Harris just announced that 30 states have joined the Political Declaration on Responsible Military use of AI+Autonomy. Hugely promising start, but more follow-up will be necessary to ensure action on these principles https://t.co/fialIg2VEU—in%20a

[Kelley Sayler @kelleysayler]

CRS has a new 2-page case study on the US-China competition in Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR). Looks at commercial and military applications of LiDAR, China's industrial policies and use of the US market, and outlines issues for Congress: https://t.co/4dEG9INCb1

[Kelley Sayler @kelleysayler]

Still seeing a lot of reporting that conflates the concept of "human judgment over the use of force" with "human in the loop." These are two different concepts. US policy on autonomy in weapon systems requires the former, but does not require the latter. https://t.co/i6bxYs045x

[Kelley Sayler @kelleysayler]

"Hypersonic missiles could cost one-third more to procure and field than ballistic missiles of the same range with maneuverable warheads." Some critical analysis from CBO. 👇

[U.S. CBO @USCBO]

CBO analyzes the hypersonic missiles being developed by the U.S. military and compares them with less expensive existing or potential weapons that might fill similar roles, such as cruise missiles or ballistic missiles. https://t.co/AzErAFPG1C

[Kelley Sayler @kelleysayler]

Excellent update to DODD 3000.09, "Autonomy in Weapon Systems." Provides some much-needed clarification w/r/t not only the policy itself but also senior leader roles, accounts for DOD's Ethical AI Principles and Responsible AI Strategy, etc. Kudos, @mchorowitz, @steenesm et al.

[Archive: Kathleen Hicks @DepSecDefHicks]

Given the dramatic advances in #technology happening all around us, the update to our #Autonomy in #Weapon Systems directive will help ensure the @DeptofDefense remains the global leader of not only developing and deploying new systems, but also safety. https://t.co/Hcxz3FkaUp

[Kelley Sayler @kelleysayler]

@Welshmen @Navy_Hipple I'm not necessarily arguing that every last one of these reports should be unclassified, but I am absolutely arguing that they should not be withheld from the legislative branch. Most CUI products do not need to be--and should not be--Distribution D-F.

[Kelley Sayler @kelleysayler]

Spoiler alert: they are. And furthermore, they are using it as an excuse to withhold certain documents from the legislative branch. I should not have to submit a FOIA request to get, for example, the DOD IG report on hypersonic test infrastructure.

[Bloomberg @business]

Congress is giving the Defense Department until the end of January to look into whether bureaucrats are overusing a document designation known as Controlled Unclassified Information https://t.co/YsivDdaWsd

[Melissa Heikkilä @Melissahei]

I tried the viral Lensa AI portrait app, and got lots and lots of nudes. I know AI image generation models are full of sexist and racist biases, but this one really hit home. My latest story for @techreview https://t.co/AA1cyFFnU1

[Kelley Sayler @kelleysayler]

@HartwellAva Right back at you ❤️