Put it on Britain's new carriers!
"After a review of our operational weaponry, maneuverability and the tactical threats, I advise that we abandon ship."
The Royal Navy is planning to step up its use of AI to improve maritime defence, beginning with STARTLE, which is AI software that can can spot potential threats. At a briefing titled "Artificial Intelligence in Royal Navy Warships" hosted by non-profit TechUK, Blighty's navy announced it was keen to explore the potential of …
"After a review of our operational weaponry, maneuverability and the tactical threats, I advise that we abandon ship."
I wonder if Captain D'Oyly-Hughes said that very thing, after he was startled?
An AI couldn't possibly do a worse job of decision making.
I wonder if Captain D'Oyly-Hughes said that very thing, after he was startled?
Nothing to see there, move along, business as usual in Royal Navy at rear-admiral (should be called bum-admiral) level or above in WW2.
Not particularly different from Lord Dudley ordering a retreat of: 2 Battleships, 1 Aircraft carrier, 6 cruisers, 20 destroyers, dedicated AA frigate, 4 corvettes and 4 mobilized Scottish fishermen trawlers at the mere whiff of a single German Battleship leaving port. In fact identical to the letter - the Scottish fishermen under the command of a retired teacher refused to obey the idiotic and traitorous order (the sole difference - they did not get court-martialed, for PR reasons).
The Scots told Dudley to go feck himself, commandeered several ships including one carrying M4 Shermans on the deck, broke the factory seals on them and loaded them with ammo. With this "improvised cruiser" leading the "fleet" they made a run for the ice edge. All ships in that group survived too. This one would have made a fantastic plot for a gritty war movie (you can pretty much slot Clooney as the retired teacher commanding one of the trawlers and put Matt Damon as one of the fishermen).
It is a movie which will never be made though as it will have to show what a bunch of hapless *** were in British fleet command in WW2. All the way to the top starting from somewhere around battleship/aircraft carrier commander and up. The incompetent maneuvering of the Hood and its inability to get out of a straddle, the idiocy of sending the Repulse and the Prince of Whales with no air cover against the Japanese where not exceptions and mishaps - they were the norm.
Vindictive hapless *** too - while the Scots which broke ranks, disobeyed the retreat orders and faced the German submarines and the Luftwaffe alone never faced a court-martial, the British government till this day including Blair and Cameron has prevented the survivors receiving the Russian medals for bravery awarded to them.
more likely it will think like a robot and just blast out orders "from the manual" for any given situation, including those that are a close approximate match according to the AI. [comedy ensues if life preservers are distributed during a fire, for example].
unlike humans, for which (above the rank of Lt JG) we would expect at least SOME intelligent decision-making to happen before orders are given...
I saw a documentary TV show about some new UK ship (maybe 5 years ago), the first of its type, built by 'Billions Above Estimate' (BAE). Everyone was very proud of the Windows For Warships implementation, and how rugged and Manly-Man the software was.
On its first exercise, the software crashed within two minutes.
Took quite some time to reboot.
Just sayin'.
The software explicitly logs its decisions. which makes the system more transparent, and decisions are ultimately signed off by humans.
"... and I'm not allowed to do anything until one of you lot scribbles on a piece of paper. I’ve worked out an answer to the square root of minus one, and they need to scribble on a piece of paper to show that they agree with me. And never a relief from the terrible pain in all the diodes down my left side."