New DND strategy warns Canadian military's approach to artificial intelligence 'fragmented'

Canada's defence department and military are approaching the implementation and use of artificial intelligence in a "fragmented," unco-ordinated manner, says a newly prepared federal strategy.

The long-awaited overview of how to deal with rapidly evolving machine-learning technology is being met with mixed reviews by some high-tech and civil society experts who had been expecting more clarity on where the country stands and how far it's prepared to go.

The strategy is candid, saying neither the Department of National Defence (DND) nor the Canadian Armed Forces is "positioned to adopt and take advantage of AI."

The report described initiatives as "fragmented, with each command and environment addressing AI independently" and expertise scattered throughout the institution.

"No roadmap exists to move the organization toward leveraging AI effectively to ensure that investments are co-ordinated and appropriately governed, or to develop the capabilities, attitude and skills to implement AI effectively, safely and responsibly," the report said.

The document, which was recently released with no public fanfare, recommends following the lead of allies by establishing an internal defence department centre that "will act as a hub of AI expertise and an accelerator for experimentation, testing, evaluation and fielding AI."

The Royal Canadian Navy has been at the forefront of experimenting with the technology, asking Defence Research and Development Canada Centre more than six years ago to set up an AI system that could predict machinery failures on warships, the strategy noted.

"The [AI] system's performance was not perfect, with false positives also produced, but the initial results were promising enough to warrant further testing," the document said.

Allies such as the United States, Britain, Ukraine and Israel, to name a few, as well as adversaries such as Russia and China, have been incorporating the technology into various elements of military operations and planning at an extraordinary pace.

For example, in late 2021, the U.K.'s Royal Navy approached Microsoft and Amazon looking for a more effective way to co-ordinate military operations, according to several trade publications.

Within three months, the tech giants, a major British arms manufacturer and Ministry of Defence officials received a demonstration of a proposed AI solution, known as Project Stormcloud, which automates tasks and flags data for intelligence analysis.

Branka Marijan, an expert with peace research institute Project Ploughshares, said she had expected the Canadian strategy to be more forward-leaning, given what allies have already learned and the real-work battlefield experience of countries such as Ukraine.

The Liberal government's recent defence strategy mentioned AI at least nine times, she said, but there appears to be a disconnect between what Ottawa says it wants to do and what it is doing.

"This strategy is more of an overview of ... things that we are thinking about, considering, than about possible applications of military AI," Marijan said. "There is a bit of a lack of vision in terms of what they want to do."