Lockheed Martin’s AI Fight Club sure sounds terrifying

 The use of artificial intelligence in warfare was always going to happen, especially once those tempting war Dollars were waved in front of the likes of OpenAI and Google. Of course, defence firms would also have been developing their own solutions.

Now Lockheed Martin is calling for AI models that can be used in military applications in air, land, sea, and space battlefields. The company has decided to call this initiative the AI Fight Club.

This Fight Club is billed as a synthetic environment developed by Lockheed Martin that simulates realistic scenarios across the varied battlefields. This environment will be used by AI teams to test their models that meet the US Department of Defence’s standards.

“There has never been a more important time to prove which implementations of AI technologies are the best, to help the United States stay ahead of the threats facing our nation and allies,” said John Clark, Lockheed Martin’s senior vice president of Technology and Strategic Innovation. “AI Fight Club uses advanced simulation and visualization to evaluate AI in realistic and complex scenarios that mimic the challenges of modern warfare. Teams with the best AI will battle each other to determine the most robust, reliable and effective models.”

The AI Fight Club will put teams of experts in head-to-head matchups in different scenarios. The scenarios that will be presented in each type of warfare include:

• Airborne operations in a contested environment,
• Layered Homeland Defense,
• Coastal defense against amphibious assault,
• Space-based surveillance and reconnaissance.

Lockheed Martin says that insights and lessons gleaned from the Fight Club will “inform the development of future AI systems, push the industry forward, and ensure American capabilities are optimized to support the unique needs of the warfighter and the Joint Force”. The company adds that teams will be able to publish and present their research and results as a way to showcase their innovations and advancements in AI.

“Lockheed Martin is actively developing the virtual arena that will host the first AI Fight Club. The company expects to complete the simulation environment by the end of Q3 2025, with the first AI Fight Club competition scheduled for Q4 2025. Lockheed Martin is announcing AI Fight Club now to give interested teams time to refine their AI and put their best foot forward and take on challengers,” the company said in a press release.

Importantly, Lockheed Martin doesn’t say that participants need to be from the US only that the solutions will improve America’s national security. Of course, we doubt foreign firms would be comfortable developing tech for the US but, that’s capitalism for you.

It is rather terrifying to think about artificial intelligence running defensive operations, especially when the technology struggles to even regurgitate information correctly. The idea that Lockheed Martin is actively encouraging the development of AI solutions for the purpose of war is also concerning, especially if this is a free-for-all. What is to stop a developer who loses their matchup from going to a foreign or private military force and selling to the highest bidder?

Also, calling this initiative Fight Club doesn’t exactly inspire confidence and perhaps wasn’t best suited for a contest hosted by a company whose main income stream is delivering weapons to the US. Let’s hope this doesn’t end with skyscrapers collapsing to the sounds of the Pixies.

9:07 AM