Data Collection and Text Analysis at Military Environment

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Large volumes of data, managed properly, are a boon for many industries and sectors, including the military. It would not be possible to mount effective military operations without knowing the when, where, and what in deploying resources. Military big data, therefore, helps defense leaders make better decisions,

However, controversy often surrounds the collection of big data in the military.  One recent hubbub in the US concerns the collection of visual data using an open-source machine learning platform. Drones were the method used in this instance for data collection, or in military parlance, intelligence gathering. The protests were not about the data, per se, but the potential use of ML for aggression.

The military continues to gather intelligence in conjunction with the Intelligence Community in various disciplines, including human intelligence. According to emerj.com, data gathered through HUMINT is often in different formats, both analog and digital. It may be audio, video, text, or images, and will have to go through analysis to integrate it with data gathered through other disciplines. 

AI-based software can tag, organize, and analyze HUMINT data, and one such software currently under assessment by the US military is Raytheon’s FoxTen.

The platform connects warfighters to intelligence from numerous agencies and sources, quickly and easily allowing them to make mission decisions when operating in remote environments.

It is a fully open intelligence platform that gives the U.S. Army the ability to rapidly incorporate new capabilities, from any developer, as soldiers in the field require them. Low power, lightweight, intuitive to use, and easy to deploy, FoXTEN enhances decision-making when and where the mission demands, according to the company website.