This New AI Tool Can Help Spot an Imminent Invasion
Want to know how many trucks are in border regions, or get an alert when bomber traffic spikes?
By Patrick Tucker
Technology Editor
December 14, 2021 10:06 AM ET
Just how many jets, cargo planes, and other military vehicles is Russia deploying to the border of Ukraine? Answering that sort of question is a labor-intensive project for analysts, requiring them to pore through satellite photos to find and classify specific objects. A new tool from data analysis firm Orbital Insight could change that.
The multi-class object detection algorithms can detect and classify a wide number of objects of relevance to the military, alerting analysts to events like buildups or unusual deployments anywhere that can be photographed by satellites. Orbital will announce the multi-class object detection algorithms today, part of the company’s GO platform.
Analysts “don't have enough time to look at all the targets. [They] focus on all the top-tier ones. But the idea [with the new tool] is to see what's also going on, in some of these second-tier and third-tier [ones] that may be really related,” Patrick Podejko, a geospatial analyst with Orbital Insight, said ahead of the public announcement. He estimated that the company tracks around 8,100 airfields worldwide, in addition to ports, testing facilities, and other locations.
https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2021/12/new-ai-tool-can-help-spot-imminent-invasion/359731/
