Ex Google CEO Eric Schmidt Is Building the Perfect AI War-Fighting Machine

In 2001, Schmidt was appointed CEO of Google, which had just a few hundred employees and was barely turning a profit. He left Alphabet in 2017 after creating a vast, immensely profitable company with a stacked portfolio of projects, including cutting-edge artificial intelligence, self-driving cars, and quantum computing. Schmidt now sees another way for technical innovation to lead to dominance, this time for the US government in conflict with other global powers. He might also be in a particularly good position to help the corporation get what the Pentagon needs in order to meet its technological goals. However, his connections to business raise concerns about how the US should aim to link the federal government with the private sector. And while US military power has long relied on technological advancements, some worry that military AI could pose fresh threats. Speaking over Zoom from his office in New York, Schmidt lays out a sweeping vision for a more advanced DOD that could quickly enlist the help of companies like Istari. He casually envisions a complete overhaul of the US military forces while donning a bright orange sweater that looks more like it was made of luxurious wool.

“Let’s imagine we’re going to build a better war-fighting system,” Schmidt says, outlining what would quantity to an infinite overhaul of probably the most highly effective army operation on earth. “We would just create a tech company.” He goes on to sketch out a imaginative and prescient of the web of issues with a lethal twist. “It would build a large number of inexpensive devices that were highly mobile, that were attritable, and those devices—or drones—would have sensors or weapons, and they would be networked together.”

According to Schmidt, the problem with the Pentagon at the moment isn't really a lack of resources, knowledge, or willpower. He refers to the US army as "wonderful people inside a poor system"—one that was created to serve an earlier era that was dominated by large, expensive, slow-moving projects like plane carriers and a bureaucratic system that prevents people from moving too quickly. Independent studies and legislative hearings have revealed that the DOD may take years to choose and purchase software, which may be out-of-date by the time it is installed. A major drawback for the US, according to Schmidt, is that networking, software, and computerization are poised to change warfare. Read more: Zoom Lays Off 1,300 Employees – 15% of the Total Workforce? Schmidt thinks there are lessons to be learned from Ukraine's response to Russia's incursion that the Pentagon may potentially build upon. The Ukrainian army has been able to withstand a much greater force in part because it moved quickly and adapted technology from the private sector—hacking commercial drones into weapons, reusing outdated battlefield connectivity systems, 3D printing spare parts, and developing practical new software for tasks like army payroll administration in months rather than years.