What role do information and intelligence play in counterinsurgency? How can artificial intelligence assist in tracking and identifying insurgent or terrorist activity? What are some of the opportunities and challenges of using AI in irregular warfare contexts?

Retired Gen. Stan McChrystal and Dr. Anshu Roy tackle those questions and more in this episode of the Irregular Warfare Podcast. They observe that with more technology and sensors on the battlefield, governments battling insurgents face an issue of information overload. They argue that AI allows counterinsurgent and counterterrorist forces to aggregate and process massive amounts of data that illuminates and even predicts insurgent activity. However, there are challenges that come with this groundbreaking opportunity.

Retired Gen. Stan McChrystal is the founder and CEO of the McChrystal Group, which advises senior executives at multinational corporations. Gen. McChrystal is the former commander of both the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan and Joint Special Operations Command. He is a best-selling author and is on the boards of several companies. Gen. McChrystal is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and the Naval War College.

Dr. Anshu Roy is the founder and CEO of Rhombus Power. He holds the patent for solid-state, subatomic particle detection and is the architect of Guardian, an artificial intelligence platform used by several government agencies. Dr. Roy received his PhD from the University of Michigan, where he researched the intersection of materials, complex systems, high-performance computing, and turbulence.

The Irregular Warfare Podcast is a collaboration between the Modern War Institute and Princeton University’s Empirical Studies of Conflict Project. You can listen to the full episode below, and you can find it and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, TuneIn, or your favorite podcast app. And be sure to follow the podcast on Twitter!

Image credit: Pfc. Michael Sword, US Army