NIPRGPT: US military experiments with AI chatbot

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This week, the US Air Force launched NIPRGPT, an AI chatbot service that military personnel from the Air Force and Space Force are to try out. According to the Department of the Air Force, it is time for employees to acquire the "necessary skills" in dealing with generative AI. As part of this experiment, AI models from different providers are being tested via NIPRGPT.

The whole thing is part of the US Department of Defense's "Data, Analytics, and Artificial Intelligence Adoption Strategy" (PDF) to integrate advanced AI technologies into the military more quickly. The aim is to ensure that the USA retains superiority on the battlefield in the coming years.

Field trial to maximize competitive advantage

Researchers at the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) investigated how good GPT-4 is in war planning in the spring when they sent their COA-GPT (Course of Action) into virtual battles. Now the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is launching a field trial with its Non-classified Internet Protocol Generative Pre-Training Transformer (NIPRGPT).

NIPRGPT is an "experimental bridge" that allows military personnel to test various (commercial) AI solutions in a secure environment under real-world conditions. Airmen, Guardians, civilian employees and contractors should use it to understand how such tools could help them in their work. "Each of us needs to learn how to use the tools, run queries and get the best results," says Alexis Bonnell, Chief Information Officer of the AFRL. NIPRGPT will help explore and build skills and confidence in the technology, he said.

Integration across the command for future missions

The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) plans to work with commercial partners to test and integrate their tools and determine if they are useful to the military services. Collen Roller, chief computer scientist at AFRL, hopes there will be a lot of interest in testing the various commercial tools with their system, processes and security procedures – so that better purchasing decisions can be made afterward.

Users can provide feedback via the platform; this should help with the development of guidelines and enable informed discussions with providers. The insights of those closest to the problems in use and service would be used for "future policy, procurement and investment decisions". Key metrics such as computing efficiency, resource utilization and security compliance will also be looked at more closely.

NIPRGPT is part of the US Air Force's "Dark Saber" software platform. Dark Saber is designed to develop next-generation software and operational capabilities that can be rapidly fielded to the armed forces.

NavyGPT on the horizon

The US Army, Air Force and Space Force are not the only ones experimenting with large language models. The US Navy is also looking into the topic. The AI Amelia (PDF) has been in use in the Navy's ticket support service since summer 2023. It is a chatbot that is not only responsible for creating tickets, but is also designed to help users with frequently asked questions and problems relating to Navy systems. If Amelia gets stuck, the problem is passed on to a human help desk employee.

On March 26, 2024, the Navy applied for the trademark "NavyGPT" and described the trademark as a "downloadable computer software with generative artificial intelligence, large language models and machine learning for general text generation, software code generation, information retrieval, translation of multiple languages, text summarization, editing, proofreading, creativity and contextual understanding". The digital arms race with artificial intelligence seems to be picking up even more speed in the US – on land, at sea and in the air.

(mki)