When we talk about the civilian impact of military technologies, it is often difficult to find a concrete example. But here it is: created to find military targets, the artificial brain is called Maven and is now helping the population affected by the hurricanes by giving great support to the rescuers. Last month, during the passage of Hurricane Helene, the United States military, in particular the Army’s 18th Airborne Corps, used for the first time the use of artificial intelligence calculations to map the closures road traffic, disruptions to communications and cellular telephone networks, supply needs and other data collected live. The purpose is clear: to be in a position to help the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) and the US Northern Command help the people whose homes and communities were affected by Hurricane Helene late last month and those who will be in the next few hours by Hurricane Milton, whose intensity reached the maximum level, i.e. “5”. The Maven system provides emergency responders with the information they need to make quick decisions in the field, such as where to send medical supplies or how many truckloads of water to bring to certain storm-ravaged areas. It is therefore a data analysis and decision making tool that collects a large amount of information from multiple sources and uses machine learning systems to visualize the information and provide reliable indicators.
Storm Helene didn’t get the media buzz of Milton, arriving today from the Gulf of Mexico, but weeks after it made its way from Florida’s Gulf Coast to the Appalachian Mountains, some residents in the Southeast are still sifting through debris caused by floods and landslides that destroyed entire communities. At the moment, in addition to approximately 6,000 units of the 18th Corps, the Department of Defense has alerted a contingent of another 5,000 people belonging to the National Guard mobilized before Hurricane Milton. Until recently the Pentagon had adopted Maven, the brainchild of military expert Robert Work in 2017, only to use geolocation data and satellite imagery to automatically detect potential targets on the battlefield, but its use in managing of the Helene emergency was the first case in which the system was applied as a resource for civil society. Getting data from environments that have little or no communication capabilities and feeding it back into FEMA’s priorities so that leaders understand where they need to provide aid and which is essential, especially to have a common operating picture that gives the best situational awareness. The first tests for civilian use of Maven were conducted for disease surveillance during the Covid-19 pandemic, when its use was being used to track the withdrawal of US forces and their allies from Afghanistan. At that time the technicians who managed the algorithms began to optimize them for other applications, thus perfecting their use in view of different needs, as Storm Helene proved to be. Part of Maven’s work in the response was to track the members of the National Guard and active duty troops who deployed to the most affected areas, developing the effectiveness of their contribution and response to the needs of the population. Meanwhile, on Monday 7 October, as many as 7,600 soldiers from 18 different states had deployed in the south-east of the country to provide humanitarian aid, to clear and make emergency routes accessible, to evaluate the damaged water systems and restore immediately repairable infrastructure. Maven’s analysis determined which types of vehicles to send, especially amphibious ones, how many rescue boats and how many helicopters, as Pentagon spokesperson, USAF General Pat Ryder confirmed to the US press. Currently the US Army Corps of Engineers, the Army’s technical role, established twelve emergency operations centers in the Southeast, including three in North Carolina; As of Sunday, FEMA had approved $137 million in housing and other assistance to provide to more than 81,500 families in North Carolina, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. The agency also provided 15 million meals, 14 million liters of water and 157 portable power generators.
So, while the cleanup from Helene’s damage continues in the southeast, in the past few hours Florida has been preparing for the arrival of Hurricane Milton, which according to forecasts should hit the west coast of the state today as a category 3, and then peaking at intensity 5 and then degenerating into a storm over the Atlantic after passing central Florida. More than 5,000 local National Guard troops have been deployed to the “Sunshine State,” while some Army officials have moved additional personnel and equipment to Fort Moore, Georgia, in anticipation of the search and rescue operations that will be needed. And the mastermind Maven will also direct them.
