The Pentagon said it is using its push into artificial intelligence to analyze reams of data gathered by drones to improve how wildfires are fought.
A program to monitor and fight wildfires in California and other parts of the country is one of two pilot projects the Pentagon unveiled on Tuesday. Defense officials said both efforts reflect the government’s new artificial-intelligence strategy that aims to work with academia and industry to fast-track adoption of advanced data-management techniques.
The Pentagon is focusing on tackling natural disasters after previously struggling to convince some artificial-intelligence companies to use their technology in military applications. Under pressure from employees last year, Alphabet Inc.’s Google unit opted not to renew its contract for the Pentagon’s Project Maven, which used artificial intelligence to review video images to identify potential drone targets.
Lt. Gen. John “Jack” Shanahan, the head of the Pentagon’s new Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, told reporters on Tuesday that technology companies are more eager to work on humanitarian and disaster-relief challenges.
He said while external partners are “spring-loaded” to work on such challenges, this may not be the case with more military-focused problems that involve the use of lethal force. The new unit is also developing ethical standards for the Defense Department’s use of AI.
“We’re not looking at autonomous weapons systems right now,” said Gen. Shanahan, who formerly ran Project Maven.
“This was a pressing need,” said Dana Deasy, the Pentagon’s chief information officer and a former CIO at JPMorgan Chase & Co., BP PLC and General Motors Co., said of the artificial-intelligence projects. “A lot of this is going to be applicable elsewhere in the Department of Defense.”
The Pentagon didn’t say how much the AI pilot projects would cost as it awaits funding in the fiscal 2020 budget due to be unveiled next month.
The wildfire project uses algorithms to assess still and video imagery—some of it sourced from National Guard drones—to help predict the paths of wildfires and improve efforts to tackle them. California this year suffered the deadliest wildfire in its history.
A second project uses data from sensors on Sikorsky H-60 helicopters used by special-operations forces to predict when the vehicles might need maintenance. Future initiatives will include cyberspace-related problems and tackling labor-intensive back-office functions as part of broader efforts to improve efficiency at the Defense Department, the Pentagon said.
“Commercial solutions are available for most of the problems we’ve had in the past and most of the solutions we’ll find in the future,” Gen. Shanahan said.
Write to Doug Cameron at doug.cameron@wsj.com
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