Brendan McCord, head of machine learning, Defense Innovation Unit Experimental, Capt. Michael Kanaan, enterprise lead for artificial intelligence and machine learning, deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and Col. Mary-Kathryn Haddad, chief of directors action group, deputy chief of staff for ISR. Svetlana Bilenkina / USAF
Popular Mechanics: The Air Force Will Treat Computer Coding Like a Foreign Language
A young Air Force intelligence officer is championing the development of human beings who will use artificial intelligence and big data to change warfare.
Capt. Mike Kanaan woke up at 3 A.M. with an idea. The 29-year-old U.S. Air Force intelligence officer had been mulling a familiar challenge, the problem of finding coders and computer-savvy airmen, who are in high demand and short supply all across the Pentagon. His wee-hour solution: Treat computer coding skills like the service does any other mission-critical foreign language.
The Air Force prides itself on its global reach, and so the service fosters and rewards foreign language skills. The Air Force measures linguistic aptitude with tests to determine an airmen's existing fluency, or his or her capacity to learn another language. Those who pass are open to duty assignments that require another language—and get extra pay as well.
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WNU Editor: Programming is definitely a form of language with its own rules and structure. And how the military will use artificial intelligence platforms and big data will probably change warfare as we know it. But how will the Air Force recruit top talent when the top talent goes to where the money is .... now that is something that the US Air Force will need to work on.
