View From the US | Human in the Loop

Fatima Natasha Razi

At Time Machine Interactive 2022, the 37th Commandant of the United States Marine Corps and the Chairman of the Marine Corps Scholarship Programme, General Robert Neller, took to the stage to discuss how artificial intelligence plays a role in defence. The very nature of his business—war—is not one to be taken lightly. “War,” he said, “is a human endeavour, and it is categorised by violence. A violence that originates from humans trying to submit or impose their will on other humans.”

Will machines be fighting wars? Will machines be imposing their will on other machines? And what would the human role be in that fight? What will the accountability be to society?

As a history major who eventually came to command brave men and women in the Marine Corps, General Neller has had a keen interest in understanding how exponential technologies impact the defence industry. He attended San Francisco’s Singularity University and came face to face with the advancements made in b