GEOINT In a Knowledge-Centric Battlespace
At DGI 2022 in Twickenham, one session stood out for me more than any other. “How can you leverage the next advances in AI, ML and automation of analysis of ever greater volumes of data in less time?”. It stood out for two reasons.
Firstly, GEOINT is about helping commanders at all levels make timely and effective decisions, getting inside the enemies decision-making cycle, whether strategically at negotiations or tactically in the heat of battle.
Secondly, the speakers were from the research domain including UK’s renowned Alan Turing Institute. Solutions to Defence challenges will often come from other sectors, and vice versa, especially in the data science ecosystem.
General Sir Nicholas Carter, the former Chief of Defence Staff, recognised that modernisation will be led by information-centric technologies. Decision-makers seek more than data, more than information. They need insight and knowledge. These are derived in the collaborative environment of people, technologies, algorithms and data, all from multiple sources. These are the ingredients; the recipe is a true understanding the problem and the context in which it exists. This is also the case in the commercial world too, where there is increasing realisation that knowledge has far more value than information or data. By definition, knowledge can only be achieved through collaboration.
Most information-centric systems use location and geospatial technologies. GEOINT is therefore far wider than intelligence. It applies equally to logistics, operations, planning – in all cases location and geospatial technologies are a key means to integrate data, to fight, to win. We should aim at doing different things rather than the same things faster. For a start, should we not accept that the term information-centric is ‘old money’? Knowledge-centric thinking should be our objective in the 2020s. This provides a step change.
What does this mean? Firstly it means that the GEOINT community must really understand the problems, the context in which decisions are being taken and the players that need to collaborate to deliver a solution. We must look to provide insight and knowledge, not data. To do so, we need to understand a multitude of tools, some geospatial, some not, that help deliver that knowledge. We need to be educated, not trained, so that we can think outside the box. Most importantly, we must have the ability and resources to collaborate with industry, internationally and with academia, across the intelligence, operational, logistics environments. The UK’s RE(Geo) people are the closet UK Defence has got to this; their experience directly alongside the operator, the logistician, the planner, the brigade commander giving them a real edge.
Back to the DGI session I liked at last year’s DGI. The more we rely on automation, AI, ML to support decision making the more we also have to provide a measure of assurance. DGI 2023 Day 1 has picked up this theme, ‘Balancing Speed and Assurance’.
Assuring data and information is relatively easy. Assuring knowledge derived from a multitude of technologies and data sources is tricky - multi-source intelligence insight or prediction must be accompanied by a judgement on its reliability for the task in hand. Industry needs to be transparent about its technologies and algorithms. The same applies to data providers. Standardised assurance reporting methodologies will be increasingly critical, especially as automation increases on the battlefield. By understanding ‘supply-chain’ bias and output limitations, educated GEOINT professionals can make judgements based upon the military situation and the level of risk a decision-maker is prepared to take. DGI 2023 promises to be a thought-provoking event; who knows, maybe through collaboration the seeds of a step change in GEOINT can be planted?
Download the DGI 2023 brochure to find out more, and book online today. Save up to £500 registering by Friday 27th January!