Comment by ben_w

> What is even the possible usage of AI for national security? Generating pictures of kittens riding nuclear weapons to the very end like in Dr Strangelove?

For all that critics of AI dismiss them as lacking imagination, your reaction suggests a lack of imagination.

Off the top of my head: facial recognition and identification to make "smart" guns that hit specific targets with reduced collateral damage (as found on most digital cameras even before smartphones); creating and A/B testing propaganda campaigns; using modified wifi signals as wall-penetrating radar capable of post estimation, heart rate and breathing monitoring[0]; take any self-driving car's AI and conditionally invert the part that says "don't hit pedestrians" when a certain target is spotted; ANPR to track specific vehicles with known owners over long distances; alternative targeting system for cruise missiles in the absence or jamming of GPS systems; using them as red teams in war-game exercises; using them to automate intrusion detection by monitoring for changes to background distributions of basically every measurable event; person-tracking by watching CCTV in secure areas; control systems for security robots (think Boston Dynamics' Spot) that are currently in deployment.

There's likely a lot more, too.

[0] https://openaccess.thecvf.com/content_cvpr_2018/papers/Zhao_...