On March 31, Microsoft signed an agreement with the United States Army Command. This contract provides for the purchase of technological devices related to artificial intelligence, and more specifically that of 120,000 augmented reality headsets.

With this agreement, the US Army confirms its strong interest in the use of AI and new technologies. Microsoft is indeed committed to designing augmented reality headsets with specific expectations. Indeed, these augmented reality helmets will have to be effective in close combat in urban areas, but also in a dark environment.

With a view to making interventions of this kind much safer, the American army has also asked for the creation of glasses that can best visualize the objective of the mission.

The augmented reality built into the helmets would be used to look through walls, observe and project beyond street corners without moving. All the helmets would be connected to each other, which would allow, for example, the superiors in the background to see and analyse what the soldiers can see in real time.

This connection would also allow the soldiers to receive almost immediately, images sent by their command like those of a camera attached to a drone. Artificial intelligence is used in chips capable of analysing all of the soldier’s movements: blinking and eye movement, use of the weapon via hand movement, etc.

However, this 21 billion dollar agreement does not seem to have the unanimity within Microsoft. Nearly a hundred employees of the firm had already expressed their discontent in 2018 (when the first prototypes were tested), considering that the technologies they were developing should not be of service to the military world. A question of ethics of AI that could resurface since the U.S. Army, very satisfied, considers that these new technologies make safer and more efficient, the work of soldiers.

Translated from Microsoft et l’armée américaine signent un accord visant à doter les soldats de casques de réalité augmentée