Ukraine's Defense AI Chief: Mass Task Automation Within 5 Years

Danylo Tsvok, the 35-year-old head of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Center of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, said in an exclusive interview with Japan's Kyodo News that Ukraine is using AI in its war against Russia and aims to make many tasks unmanned and autonomous within 3 to 5 years. He stated that "asymmetric measures are extremely important, and AI is the best choice" to overcome the manpower shortage. Kyodo News published the interview on the 5th, which was conducted in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the 3rd. This was Tsvok's first interview with Japanese media since he was appointed head of the newly established Defense AI Center 'A1' in March. He said Ukraine, which possesses vast amounts of real-world combat data, is collaborating with US high-tech companies to accelerate the introduction of AI in an effort to break Russia's numerical advantage in troops. Tsvok predicted that in future wars, AI-equipped drones will automatically identify and strike targets, and revealed that some of this technology is already being used in Ukraine's war against Russia. Regarding Ukraine's long-range strikes on Russian oil facilities, he noted that the military has been provided with an "autonomous mechanism from planning to target identification and execution of strike methods." With the Russia-Ukraine war now in its fourth year, Tsvok said Ukraine has "gathered the world's largest dataset documenting the war, becoming a hub for generating next-generation solutions." He believes Ukraine "can build solutions to defend itself and the entire democratic world." He also stated that Ukraine is "open" to cooperation with various countries, including Japan, which has extensive experience in fields like robotics.