War Department Eyes ‘Boss Mode’ Future With AI

The War Department is investing in cutting-edge technologies such as quantum computing and advanced nuclear power systems to meet the energy demands that increased computing power will generate.

These capabilities could reinforce U.S. leadership in scientific research and pave the way for entirely new industries, said Jacob Glassman, deputy assistant secretary of war for critical technologies, at GovCIO Media & Research’s Federal AI Forum in Reston, Virginia, Thursday.

Glassman’s portfolio includes quantum technology development, AI adoption and portable, scalable nuclear power.

To meet the growing power demands of AI and other technologies, the War Department is investing in small modular reactors. Glassman noted that as new, next-generation frontier AI models emerge, they could require four times the current computing capacity and a corresponding increase in power.

Instead of building entirely new power plants, facilities could add one or two modular reactors as their energy requirements grow, he said. The technology is smaller, more portable and safer than older nuclear power systems, he added.

“I actually think it is absolutely that technology in particular [that] is the only thing that’s going to actually get us to that [AI] scaling,” Glassman said.

Quantum Considerations

Another potential driver of increased power requirements is quantum computing, which Glassman said is poised to become more widely available in the near future.

Quantum computing represents a fundamentally different approach to computing than AI. While AI relies on algorithms running on conventional computing systems, quantum computing can perform certain calculations in parallel in ways traditional systems cannot.

“Quantum just makes parallel computing at a crazy level,” Glassman said.

While AI and advanced computing systems can create complex models of molecules, that process may take months to complete. Quantum systems could potentially create these complex models in days or hours, he said.

“It’s a completely different way of computing,” Glassman said.

Unlike conventional computers, which process information using bits represented as either 0 or 1, quantum computers use quantum bits, or qubits, that can exist in combinations of states. This allows quantum systems to approach certain computational problems differently from conventional computers.

When combined with AI, quantum computing could potentially create what Glassman called a “boss mode” technology capable of feats such as modeling the entire human genome.

“Think about all the medical applications. Think about all the chemical innovations that can happen out of things like that. And that’s just one use case,” Glassman said.

The ability to model processes and objects at the atomic scale with high fidelity could potentially unlock entirely new industries, he added.

Funding Technology Research

Glassman noted that the investment of more than $140 million in the Quantum and Microelectronics Park in Chicago, a first-of-its-kind facility designed to support innovation in quantum and microelectronics technologies.

He also noted investment in small modular reactors is progressing with the goal of deploying a reactor at a Navy base within the next two years.

DOW is also working to accelerate research investment alongside the departments of the Interior and Energy. Additionally, the department is partnering with private industry to provide expertise and funding to accelerate research.

“Not only are we recognizing it’s important, but under in this regime, we are actually putting our money where our mouth is … we’ve really found that when we invest in something, especially at Office Future Capital, where we get really choice financing, we find a huge multiplier in the private equity world,” Glassman said.

While the Pentagon and other federal agencies are working to expand the nation’s industrial base, Glassman said investment alone will not be enough.

“We need public private investments in both of these things, and we’re really reliant on the private sector to look at this because our quantities are never going to even touch the quantities that you’ll get in commercial industry. So we’re reliant on planting the seeds, helping them get to a certain stage and then hope you blow up on the commercial market,” Glassman said.