Risk considerations for the department of defense's fielding of large language models

Abstract

In a 10 August 2023 memo to Senior Department of Defense (DoD) Leaders, the Deputy Secretary of Defense outlined the roles and responsibilities of the DoD's newly established Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer Generative Artificial Intelligence and Large Language Models Task Force, Task Force Lima. The AI and LLM Task Force is charged with focusing the DoD's exploration and responsible fielding of generative AI and LLM capabilities. While AI and LLM have revolutionized natural language processing in commercial applications, significant concerns must be addressed before the technology is fully deployed within the DoD. This study will explore the current biases in training data, ethical violations, security breaches, potential misuse, and challenges with AI and LLM interpretability. Industry, academic and government partnerships need to ensure a responsible and equitable deployment of LLMs that harnesses the full potential of the capabilities in a manner that is responsible, secure, and well understood by the end user community.