Duality AI, creator of Falcon—a leading digital twin simulation platform—has announced its partnership with CoVar to support DARPA’s ASIMOV program. ASIMOV aims to establish a comprehensive framework for assessing the ethical alignment of autonomous systems with U.S. military values, laws of war, and commander’s intent. This collaboration comes at a critical time as autonomous systems rapidly transition from research to real-world deployment, raising ethical challenges that demand a robust evaluation framework.
1. Mission of DARPA’s ASIMOV Program
- Establish a common framework to evaluate ethical readiness of autonomous systems.
- Address complex ethical challenges posed by AI decision-making in military contexts.
- Incorporate an Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications (ELSI) advisory group to develop a common ethical language.
2. Duality AI’s Role in the ASIMOV Program
- Partnering with CoVar to enhance the GEARS (Gauging Ethical Autonomous Reliable Systems) ethical testing infrastructure.
- Falcon platform provides high-fidelity digital twins of environments, systems, and agents (human and vehicular).
- Enables operationally relevant scenarios with precise simulation and comprehensive data outputs.
3. Falcon’s Technical Capabilities
- Seamlessly integrates with autonomous system software for in-the-loop simulations.
- Streams synthetic data from multi-modal virtual sensors including electro-optical, IR, LiDAR, and RADAR.
- Flexibly creates diverse environments and scenarios procedurally from varied input sources.
4. Insights from Program Leaders
- Dr. Pete Torrione, CTO of CoVar, highlights Falcon’s role in rapidly generating ethical scenarios represented by knowledge graphs.
- Apurva Shah, CEO of Duality AI, emphasizes the importance of responsible AI transition to real-world use and the critical nature of evolving ethical AI.
5. Broader Impact and Collaboration
- Duality joins a multidisciplinary team including ethicists, AI/ML experts, and military commanders.
- GEARS quantitative approach aims to influence the wider autonomy community with its ethical testing methodologies.
Duality AI’s partnership with CoVar under DARPA’s ASIMOV program marks a significant step toward ensuring autonomous systems operate ethically and reliably within military operations. Falcon’s advanced digital twin simulations provide the precision and flexibility needed to evaluate autonomous systems against rigorous ethical standards. This collaboration exemplifies a proactive approach to responsible AI deployment in critical defense applications.