The US Army makes the first confirmed OpenAI purchase for warfighting forces

Less than a one year after OpenAI quietly signaled that he wanted to do business with the Pentagona procurement document obtained by The Intercept shows US Africa Command, or AFRICOM, considers access to OpenAI technology “critical” to its mission.

The document of September 30 lays out AFRICOM’s rationale for purchasing cloud computing services directly from Microsoft as part of its $9 billion Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability contract, rather than seeking another vendor on the open market. “USAFRICOM operates in a dynamic and evolving environment where IT plays a critical role in achieving mission objectives,” the document said, including its “vital mission to support our African mission partners (and) joint USAFRICOM exercises.”

The document, labeled Controlled Unclassified Information, is marked FEDCON, indicating it is not intended for distribution outside the government or contractors. It shows AFRICOM’s request has been approved by the Defense Information Systems Agency. While the purchase price is being redacted, the approval document notes that its value is less than $15 million.

Like the rest of the Defense Department, AFRICOM — which oversees Pentagon operations in Africa, including local military cooperation with US allies there — has a growing appetite for cloud computing. Department of Defense buy already access to cloud computing from Microsoft through the Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability project. This new document reflects AFRICOM’s desire to bypass bureaucracy and buy immediately Microsoft Azure cloud servicesincluding OpenAI software without considering other vendors. AFRICOM states that “the ability to support advanced AI/ML workloads is crucial. This includes search services, natural language processing (machine learning) and unified analytics for data processing.” And according to AFRICOM, Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform, which includes a suite of tools provided by OpenAI, is the only cloud provider capable of meeting its needs.

Microsoft it started selling OpenAI’s GPT-4 large language model to defense customers in June 2023. Earlier this year, following the revelation that OpenAI had changed its mind about military work, the company announced a cybersecurity collaboration with DARPA in January and said its tools will be used for an unspecified veteran suicide prevention initiative. In April, Microsoft inclined Pentagon when using DALL-E, the OpenAI imaging tool, for command and control software. But the AFRICOM document marks the first confirmed purchase of OpenAI products by a US combatant command whose mission is one to kill.

OpenAIs he stated The corporate mission remains “to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity.”

The AFRICOM document marks the first confirmed purchase of OpenAI products by a US combatant command whose mission is one to kill.

The document states that “OpenAI tools” are among the “unique features” provided by Microsoft “essential to ensure that the cloud services provided align with USAFRICOM’s mission and operational needs. … Without access to Microsoft’s integrated suite of artificial intelligence tools and services, USAFRICOM would face significant challenges in analyzing and extracting useful information from large amounts of data. … This could lead to delays in decision-making, compromised situational awareness and decreased agility in responding to dynamic and evolving threats on the African continent.” Defense and intelligence agencies around the world have expressed strong interest in using large language models for sift through the winepresses of intelligenceor quickly transcribe and analyze query audio data.

Microsoft invested $10 billion in OpenAI last year and now wields a lot of influence over the company in addition to reselling its technology. In February, The Intercept and other digital news outlets sued Microsoft and OpenAI for using their journalism without permission or credit.

An OpenAI spokesperson told The Intercept, “OpenAI does not have a partnership with US Africa Command,” and referred questions to Microsoft. Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment. No AFRICOM spokesperson.

“It is extremely alarming that they are explicit about using OpenAI tools for ‘unified analytics for data processing’ to align with USAFRICOM’s mission objectives,” said Heidy Khlaaf, chief AI scientist at the AI ​​Now Institute, who previously safety assessments for OpenAI. “Especially when they state that they believe these tools improve efficiency, accuracy and scalability, when in fact these tools have been shown to be wildly inaccurate and consistently produce results. These claims show a troubling lack of awareness by those procuring these technologies of the high risks these tools pose in mission-critical environments.”

Since OpenAI quietly deleted the part of its terms of service that forbade military work in January, the company has consistently sated with the US national security establishment, which is eager to integrate impressively but frequently inaccuracy tools like ChatGPT. In JuneOpenAI added former Trump-appointed head of the National Security Agency, Paul Nakasone, to its board of directors; The firm’s current head of national security partnerships is Katrina Mulligan, a Pentagon alum who previously worked in “Special Operations and Irregular Warfare,” according to her LinkedIn profile.

On Thursday, following a White House directive ordering the Pentagon to accelerate the adoption of tools like those made by OpenAI, the company published an article outlining “his approach to AI and national security”. According to the post, “The values ​​that guide our work in national security” include “democratic values,” “human rights” and “accountability,” explaining, “We believe that all AI applications, especially those involving governance and national security, should be subject to oversight, clear guidelines for use and ethical standards.” OpenAI’s language is a clear reflection of the White House order, which prohibited security and intelligence entities from using artificial intelligence in ways that “do not align with democratic values,” Washington Post. reported.

While AFRICOM’s document contains few details on how it might use OpenAI’s tools, the command’s usual involvement in African coups, civilian killings, torture, and covert warfare would seem inconsistent with OpenAI’s stated national security framework. Last year, AFRICOM chief Gen. Michael Langley told the House Armed Services Committee that his command shares “fundamental values” with col. Mamady Doumbouya, an AFRICOM trainee who overthrew Guinea’s government and declared himself its leader in 2021.

Although US military activity in Africa receives relatively little attention compared to US Central Command, which oversees US forces in the Middle East, AFRICOM’s presence is both significant and the subject of frequent controversy. Despite claims of a “light footprint” on the continent, The Intercept reported in 2020 a former AFRICOM secret map which shows “a network of 29 US military bases stretching from one side of Africa to the other”. Much of AFRICOM’s purpose since its establishment in 2007 involves training and advising African troops, low-profile special operations forces missions and operating drone bases to counter militant groups in the Sahel, Lake Chad Basin and Horn of Africa in efforts to to bring security and stability to the continent. The results were grim. In all of Africa, the State Department counted a total of onlynine terrorist attacks in 2002 and 2003, the first years of US counterterrorism assistance on the continent. According to the African Center for Strategic Studies, a Pentagon think tank, the annual number of attacks by Islamist militant groups in Africa now exceeds 6,700 – an increase of 74,344 percent.

As the violence spiraled, to say the least 15 officers who received US security assistance were involved in 12 coups in West Africa and the greater Sahel during the war on terror, including in Nigeria last year. (At least five leaders since that July 2023 coup has received US assistance, according to a US official.) US allies have also been involved in a raft of alleged human rights violations. In 2017, The Intercept reported a Cameroonian military base used by AFRICOM to conduct surveillance drone flights was used to torture military prisoners.

Data management has long been a challenge for AFRICOM. After The Intercept rounded up a number of US-trained coup leaders on the continent, for example, the command admitted it did not know how many coups its charges had carried out, nor did the command even keep a list of how many they had such takeovers. it happened “AFRICOM does not maintain a database of this information,” spokeswoman Kelly Cahalan told The Intercept last year.

AFRICOM’s mismanagement of information was also lethal. Following a 2018 drone strike in Somalia, AFRICOM announced it had killed “five terrorists“ and destroyed a vehicle and that “no civilians were killed in this airstrike.” A secret U.S. military investigation, obtained by The Intercept through the Freedom of Information Act, revealed that despite months of “target development,” the attack on a pickup truck killed at least three, and possibly five, civilians, including Luul Dahir Mohamed and her. 4 year old daughterMuse Mariam Shilow.