That\u2019s the promise of AI<\/span> systems by SparkCognition<\/a>, an Austin, Texas-based startup. Founder and CEO<\/span> Amir Husain says his AIs can teach themselves enough about a field of endeavor to diagnose situations and offer solutions. Or, as Husain put it: \u201cOur algorithms can extract the physics of the problem just by observing the\u00a0data.\u201d<\/p>\n SparkCognition, which is already providing services to dozens of aviation-related firms, recently received investments from Boeing<\/a> and Verizon<\/a> as part of its initial $32 million funding round. The company has also attracted the interest of former and current Pentagon officials. Retired Marine Corps Gen. John Allen is a board member. Among the firm\u2019s senior corporate advisers is Wendy Anderson, who served as chief of staff for Deputy Defense Secretary Ash Carter and as deputy chief of staff for Defense Secretary Chuck\u00a0Hagel.<\/p>\n The Pentagon has made no secret that it wants to pair humans with machines<\/a> to help them make decisions faster. The military has been looking for ways to automate intelligence processing<\/a> using a new algorithmic warfare cell. The work done by SparkCognition appears to fit into the sweet spot. Already, these algorithms are being used by commercial firms to forecast failure rates for ship turbines and pumps. And they can predict more than when equipment will fail, but also the type of failure and why it\u2019s\u00a0failing.<\/p>\n One customer is Flowserve, a Texas-based pump\u00a0manufacturer.<\/p>\n \u201cWe built a solution for them that extended their failure forewarning from four hours to five days,\u201d says CEO<\/span> Husain. \u201cThat\u2019s the kind of impact [the company\u2019s algorithms have]. We don\u2019t know anything about pumps; we\u2019re not domain experts in\u00a0pumps.\u201d<\/p>\n In the aviation industry, he says, SparkCognition is supplying \u201ca huge array of now close to 60 of the largest industrial aviation customers\u2026All of them have pointed to the uniqueness of this automated model building\u00a0approach.\u201d<\/p>\n The group includes Honeywell and new investor Boeing. \u201cSparkCognition is at the forefront of a technological shift in machine learning and artificial intelligence that will revolutionize every aspect of industry,\u201d said a statement by Greg Hyslop, Boeing\u2019s chief technology officer and its senior vice president for engineering, test, and technology. \u201cThey are leaders in AI<\/span>, and they are pursuing the types of technologies that are critical to our future products and\u00a0services.\u201d<\/p>\n In the defense sphere, the company has used its \u201cnatural language algorithm\u201d to transform military manuals for a defense\u00a0firm.<\/p>\n \u201cSo instead of going up and looking through these manuals and figuring out what to do when something breaks and going through that prognostics process, you want the model to basically anticipate what you need and also fetch information that is collected from various different manuals \u2026 based on the intelligent understanding of that content and is provided back to the person asking the question,\u201d Husain\u00a0said.<\/p>\n From a military perspective, the algorithms have much potential, particularly in\u00a0cyberdefense.<\/p>\n \u201cThe threat surface is so massive that dealing with the types of threats that are emanating and targeting the cyber capabilities of any country of any developed economy, that is your one area where the use artificial intelligence to block that is a huge contribution,\u201d Husain said. \u201cWe are working on\u00a0that.\u201d<\/p>\n Husain said his algorithms might also be able to help with the reported pump and turbine problems<\/a> with the Navy\u2019s Littoral Combat Ships. \u201cThat is the exact kind of thing we look into and that we protect on a commercial level with a large number of companies\u00a0today.\u201d<\/p>\n Then there\u2019s the R2-D2 applicability across all military\u00a0systems.<\/p>\n An \u201cAI<\/span> watchman\u201d could prevent ships from colliding with one another<\/a> since the computers are \u201cconstantly looking at sensor data and is making sense of the environment and the\u00a0situation.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"SparkCognition\u2019s](\"http:\/\/cdn.defenseone.com\/media\/img\/upload\/2017\/07\/06\/USS_Coronado\/defense-large.jpeg\" "\\"SparkCognition\u2019s")
It\u2019s not quite R2-D2 repairing Luke <\/strong>Skywalker\u2019s X-Wing fighter in space battle, but artificial intelligence could soon be helping the military predict when equipment will break, fend off cyber attacks, and prevent ships from colliding with one\u00a0another.<\/p>\n