Shyam Sankar, chief technology officer (CTO) of U.S. artificial intelligence (AI) data analysis corporations Palantir, said of the war involving the United States, Israel and Iran, "People will later look back and judge it as the first large-scale combat operation led and amplified by AI, which greatly improved productivity."
On the 24th (local time), CTO Sankar attended the Hill & Valley Forum in Washington, D.C., and said this war will be remembered as the first in which AI played a central role and will be a turning point in modern warfare.
In fact, the United States is known to have used Anthropic's AI model Claude and Palantir's AI technology in its latest airstrikes on Iran. The Washington Post (WP) reported that the U.S. military used the AI-based "Maven Smart System," developed by Palantir, to strike about 1,000 targets during the first 24 hours of the Iran strikes.
This system is a platform that analyzes vast data obtained from satellites and various surveillance equipment to support rapid decision-making on the battlefield, such as real-time target designation, with Anthropic's Claude embedded.
Controversy is also growing over using AI to select targets on the battlefield. Notably, Anthropic fell out with the Ministry of National Defense after sticking to its position that it would not allow its AI models to be used to develop autonomous lethal weapons that operate without human intervention.
CTO Sankar said AI's role in improving the efficiency of target designation is not simply about pulling the trigger but about a complex process. He compared it to "value chain management." CTO Sankar said, "In reality, it is a very bureaucratic and complex process," adding that technology can shorten steps that used to take months.
He emphasized that major U.S. AI research labs should focus on more practical applications of technology rather than obsessing over artificial general intelligence (AGI). He added, "It is concerning that countless labs are fixated on AGI and are putting out overly pessimistic doomerism."