AI at war: Five things to know about Project Maven

A Pentagon AI program called Project Maven is at the center of the US strikes against Iran and potentially one of the most consequential transformations of modern warfare.

What is it?

Project Maven is the Pentagon’s flagship artificial intelligence program, launched in 2017 as a narrow experiment to help military analysts make sense of the torrent of drone footage pouring in from conflict zones.

Operators were drowning in imagery, searching frame by frame for objects of interest that might appear for only a moment before vanishing. Maven was built to find the needle in the haystack.

Eight years later, the program has evolved into something far more expansive: an AI-assisted targeting and battlefield management system that has vastly accelerated what is known in war-making as the kill chain – the process from initial detection to destruction.

How does it work?

Maven functions like both the air traffic control of battle and its cockpit.

Aalok Mehta, director of the CSIS Wadhwani…