Weaponized Artificial Intelligence -
3 Critical Dual-Use Applications
by Daniel Faggella
CEO, Emerj Artificial Intelligence Research

Overview
● Bio in brief
● Introduction
● Application 1: Computer Vision
● Application 2: Natural Language Processing
● Application 3: Programmatically Generated Content
● Concluding thoughts
New Shape Forum 2019 Emerj

We help large organizations (the World Bank,
global pharma giants, etc) make critical strategic
decisions about AI strategy and AI impact.
● AI market sizing, growth-rate analysis
● Competitive intelligence and strategy
● Vendor selection and AI adoption
Presenting our AI Research at
United Nations HQ, NYC

Military Applications of AI
● Updating legacy physical systems (tanks, planes,
missile systems) will take many years
● Autonomous weapons remain a concern (the
powerful will build them, others will decry them)
● Much of the novel AI innovation in weaponry and
defense will begin in the private sector
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Application 1:
Computer Vision
emerj.com @danfaggella

Computer Vision Capabilities
● 1. Retail / Other: Behavior Detection
● 2. Finance: Satellite Imagery / Quantamental
Investing
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Computer Vision - Dual-Use
● 1. Retail / Other: Behavior Detection
○ Quantifying the movement of enemy troops or
leaders
○ Homeland surveillance
● 2. Finance: Satellite Imagery / Quantamental
Investing
○ Predicting movement of enemy vessels
○ Predicting enemy munition/fuel levels
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Application 2:
Natural Language Processing
emerj.com @danfaggella

Computer Vision Capabilities
● 1. Any: Translation, Summarization
● 2. Marketing: Extraction
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Computer Vision - Dual-Use
● 1. Any: Translation, Summarization
○ ..
○ ..
● 2. Marketing: Extraction
○ ..
○ ..
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Application 3:
Programmatically Generated Content
emerj.com @danfaggella

Deepfake of Barack Obama
[near-unlimited data to train on, massive budget]

Deepfake of Bettina Tucci Bartsiotas
[1 min of video footage to train on, miniature budget]

NVIDIA

NVIDIA

@goodfellow_ian

AI and PGC: Companies
Goal:
● Unassailable relative power
Means:
● Encourage increasingly more use (time) and
behavior (purchase)
● Be seen as benevolent, or ambient
Strategy:
● Discourage use and behavior on outside platforms
● Own the digital ecosystem with more and more
features to eat away at competitors’ share
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AI and PGC: Companies - Precedents
● Facebook buys Oculus to own more eyeballs in
virtual space
● Amazon and Google fight over the home assistant
market
● Google fought with Facebook in the social space
(Google+)
● Facebook and Google are both attempting to
compete with Amazon in eCommerce
● (I’m sure similar dynamics exist in China)
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AI and PGC: Countries
Goal:
● Unassailable relative power
Means:
● Strong economy/military, compliant society
Strategy:
● Create conflict in the ecosystem of other countries
(weaken societies and economies
● Encourage society to support the goals of the ruling
party (most effective in governments where leaders
cannot be voted out)
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AI and PGC: Countries - Precedents
● Countries forming their own independent internet,
deterring dissidents and inculcating society
○ Governments taking control of VR/AR for the
same reason
● Countries resisting the digital ecosystems (social
media) and hardware (5G, etc) of other countries,
warry to grand control of their virtual ecosystems
● Interfering with politics and societies of democratic
nations with open governments
● Governments using their private virtual ecosystem
players as extensions of the party’s will
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We are Going In

We are Going In
INTERPOL World 2019 Emerj

Hypothesis
In the remaining part of the 21st century:
All competition between the world’s most powerful
nations or organizations (whether economic, political, or
military) is about gaining control over the computational
substrate that houses human experience and AI.
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Concluding Thoughts
How should democratic nations...
● Ethically leverage the new capabilities of AI?
● Set up international norms and governance?
● Handle the malicious and abusive use of AI by
autocratic states?
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That’s all, folks
research@emerj.com
emerj.com @danfaggella