Microsoft promotes use of OpenAI tools in US Army
In October 2023, at a seminar for the US Department of Defense dedicated to AI literacy, Microsoft and OpenAI presented products they could offer the Pentagon, particularly, DALL-E, The Intercept reported citing material from the event on April 10.
Microsoft’s presentation advertised OpenAI’s DALL-E image
generator. It was proposed to be used for battle management systems, among
other things. This is a suite of command-and-control software that provides
military leaders with an overview of situation in a combat scenario, allowing
them to coordinate things like artillery fire, air strike targeting, and troop
movement.
Microsoft confirmed that it had offered the Pentagon to use
DALL-E to train its software on the battlefield, but said that this never
happened.
“This is an example of potential use cases that have been
identified through conversations with customers,” the company explained.
OpenAI spokeswoman Liz Bourget said that OpenAI did not
participate in Microsoft’s presentation and that it did not sell any tools to
the Defense Ministry.
“OpenAI’s policy prohibits usage of our tools to develop or
use weapons, cause injury to others, or destroy property,” she said.
“We did not participate in this presentation and have not
spoken to the US defense agencies about the hypothetical use cases it
describes.”
Bourget also added that company has no evidence that OpenAI
models have been used for such purposes. At the time of the presentation,
OpenAI’s policy prohibited use of DALL-E for military purposes.
Microsoft, on the other hand, said that if the Pentagon uses
DALL-E or any other OpenAI tool under a contract with Microsoft, it will be
subject to rules of use defined by OpenAI.
As NV Techno wrote, earlier this year, OpenAI, developer of ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence chatbot, updated its policy to remove mention of bannig usage of its technology for military and combat purposes.
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