Keeping people and society safe; using AI to improve situational awareness

Defense and the defense industry are in a significant transition. Classical systems are combined with the use of small and cheap systems in large numbers; systems are increasingly connected, and data from a multitude of sources needs to be fused to gain situational awareness; increasingly intelligent decision support systems will allow better and faster decisions. As the reader might guess, AI will play an essential role in the transition. Due to the nature of the domain, requirements for reliable, predictable and ethical systems are essential.

In this talk, we briefly present the domain we are working in and then present a particular example of using LLM to more efficiently find information in huge data. Data are coming from Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) transponders of ships around the coasts, rivers and lakes. In the first step, LLM agents are used to simplify and speed up data filtering by using common language in text or speech. In the second step, it is used for more specific tasks such as identifying smugglers.