Lt. Gen. Michael Groen: AI-Backed Cyber Defense Begins With Network Security

Lt. Gen. Michael Groen, director of the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC) and a 2021 Wash100 Award recipient, said that artificial intelligence’s first cyber defense aspect begins with network security, DOD News reported Friday. 

The Department of Defense is shifting its mindset on networks and architecture because these play a significant role in warfighting and must be treated as weapons, Groen said at a cybersecurity summit. 

“We have to plan to protect them, make them resilient because everything that we're going to do in an artificial intelligence or data-driven way will depend on the security [of] those networks," he added.

JAIC is working with the U.S. Cyber Command on various efforts to apply AI in network protection—a mission that Groen expects to expand rapidly in the coming years. 

But to adopt AI integration in the military, he said the department will field through an “incremental approach” by using AI to address small-scale issues first and later on develop other AI-backed strategies to improve processes in the service. 

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