Ukraine’s four-year war with Russia has made it the world leader in battlefield drone technology. One byproduct of that is that the data it collects has become one of the country’s most valuable assets. On Thursday, Ukraine played that card, saying it will begin sharing its battlefield data with allies to train drone AI software.
“In modern warfare, we must defeat Russia in every technological cycle,” Ukraine Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov wrote on Telegram (translated from Ukrainian). “Artificial intelligence is one of the key areas of this competition.”
Fedorov previewed the move when he took his post in January. At the time, the tech-savvy cabinet member pledged to “more actively” bring allies into projects. Foreign allies and companies have sought access to the country’s data as, for better or worse, AI increasingly becomes an integral element of warfare.
Fedorov says Ukraine has a platform that will safely train partners’ AI models without providing sensitive data. The system is said to provide continually updating datasets, including large volumes of photos and videos.
“For us, this is the next step in the development of win-win cooperation,” Fedorov wrote. “Partners get the opportunity to train their AI models on real data from modern warfare. And [for] Ukraine: faster development of autonomous systems and new technological solutions for the front.”
Last year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned global leaders of a dangerous escalation tied to drone tech and AI. “We are now living through the most destructive arms race in human history,” he said at a meeting of the UN General Assembly in September. However, given the ugly realities in his country, Zelenskyy reiterated his need for armaments. “The only guarantee of security is friends and weapons,” he said.
