Milley Talks to Taliban

FOOTBALL: Unlikely Heisman VIDEO GAMES contenders square off Page 56 Cyberpunk 2077 a thrill ride MUSIC: Swift’s latest with some less surprising Page 32 bumpy issues Page 22 MOVIES: Clooney shines in new sci-fi drama Page 21 stripes.com Volume 79 Edition 175 ©SS 2020 FRIDAY,DECEMBER 18, 2020 $1.00 Milley AI takes flight talks to Taliban Joint Chiefs chairman holds unannounced meeting in Qatar BY ROBERT BURNS Associated Press KABUL, Afghanistan — The top U.S. general held unannounced talks with Taliban peace negotiators in the Persian Gulf to urge a reduction in violence across Afghanis- tan, even as senior American officials in Ka- bul warned that stepped-up Tali- ban attacks en- Milley danger the mili- tant group’s nascent peace nego- tiations with the Afghan govern- LUIS A. RUIZ-VAZQUEZ/U.S. Air Force ment. A U-2 Dragon Lady assigned to the 9th Reconnaissance Wing takes off at Beale Air Force Base in California on Tuesday. The Air Force allowed Army Gen. Mark Milley, chair- an artificial-intelligence algorithm to control sensor and navigation systems to test its capability and its ability to work with a human. man of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met for about two hours with Tali- ban negotiators in Doha, Qatar, on In a first, Air Force uses artificial intelligence aboard military jet Tuesday and flew Wednesday to Kabul to discuss the peace proc- BY AARON GREGG Former Google chief executive Eric ess with Afghan President Ashraf The Washington Post “This is really meant Schmidt, who previously headed the Penta- Ghani. The Air Force allowed an artificial-intelli- gon’s Defense Innovation Board, described Although Milley reported no gence algorithm to control sensor and naviga- to shock the Air Force Tuesday’s flight test as “the first time, to my breakthrough, his Taliban meet- tion systems on a U2 Dragon Lady spy plane in knowledge, that you have a military system in- ings represent a remarkable mile- a training flight Tuesday, officials said, mark- and the [Defense] tegrating AI, probably in any military.” stone — America’s top general ing what is believed to be the first known use of Department as a whole The AI system was deliberately designed coming face-to-face with repre- AI onboard a U.S. military aircraft. without a manual override in order to “provoke sentatives of the group that ruled No weapons were involved, and the plane into how seriously thought and learning in the test environment,” Afghanistan until it was ousted 19 was steered by a pilot. Even so, senior defense Air Force spokesman Josh Benedetti said in an years ago this month in the early officials touted the test as a watershed moment we need to treat email. stages of what became America’s in the Defense Department’s attempts to incor- It was relegated to highly-specific tasks and longest war. Milley served three porate AI into military aircraft, a subject that is AI teaming.” walled off from the plane’s flight controls, ac- tours of duty in Afghanistan, the of intense debate in aviation and arms control cording to people involved in the flight test. first in 2003 and the last in 2013- communities. Will Roper “For the most part I was still very much the 14. “This is the first time this has ever hap- Assistant Air Force Secretary pilot in command,” the U2 pilot who carried Milley’s meetings came amid a pened,” Assistant Air Force Secretary Will Roper said. SEE ARTIFICIAL ON PAGE 7 SEE MILLEY ON PAGE 6 PAGE 2 • STARS AND STRIPES • Friday, December 18, 2020 BUSINESS/WEATHER EUROPE GAS PRICES Lawsuit accuses Google of Country Super E10 Super unleaded Super plus Diesel Germany $2.433 $2.840 $3.096 $2.834 Azores .. .. $2.996 .. Change in price +0.2 cents 0.2 cents +0.1 cent +3.3 cents Change in price .. .. +0.1 cents .. ‘anti-competitive conduct’ Netherlands .. $3.350 $3.580 $3.456 Belgium .. $2.377 $2.621 $2.423 DALLAS — Ten states Wednes- ing the market in its favor and Change in price .. +0.2 cents +0.2 cents +0.2 cents Change in price .. No change No change No change day brought a lawsuit against Goo- eliminating competition. 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For the week of Dec. 19 - 25 ing of online advertisements, fix- — From The Associated Press WEATHER OUTLOOK FRIDAY IN THE MIDDLE EAST FRIDAY IN EUROPE SATURDAY IN THE PACIFIC Misawa 25/22 Kabul Seoul 37/28 21/18 Baghdad 63/53 Tokyo Drawsko Osan Kandahar Mildenhall/ 25/11 44/31 57/26 Pomorskie Busan Lakenheath 43/40 51/44 34/23 Iwakuni Kuwait City 47/41 Bahrain Brussels Zagan Sasebo 68/56 72/67 Ramstein 43/39 43/40 Guam 48/45 47/39 84/81 Riyadh Lajes, 72/50 Doha Azores Stuttgart Pápa 61/58 44/36 76/62 Aviano/ 37/34 Vicenza 46/32 Naples 54/45 Okinawa Morón 57/64 56/48 Sigonella Rota 56/42 The weather is provided by the Djibouti 58/50 Souda Bay American Forces Network Weather Center, 82/70 58/54 2nd Weather Squadron at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb. TODAY IN STRIPES American Roundup ...... 14 Comics .........................17 Crossword ................... 17 Faces .......................... 15 Opinion ........................ 16 Sports .................... 19-24 Friday, December 18, 2020 • STARS AND STRIPES • PAGE 3 MILITARY SIGAR: Equipment for Afghans not tracked BY PHILLIP WALTER consent, the report by the Special John F. Sopko, Special Inspec- told the U.S. monitors that 19 of 48 said. WELLMAN Inspector General for Afghanis- tor General for Afghan Recon- U.S.-provided night-vision de- SIGAR recommended that Stars and Stripes tan said. But only 40% of the sensi- struction, said in a report released vices had fallen into enemy hands DOD change its monitoring pro- KABUL, Afghanistan — The tive articles given to the Afghans Nov. 5, that the number of daily at- and 29 were listed as destroyed, cedures to make them more suit- Defense Department has failed to were inventoried between May tacks by enemy forces in Afghan- damaged or lost. able for Afghanistan. keep track of surveillance sys- 2019 and April 2020, it said, and istan jumped by 50% in the three Security constraints and travel The Pentagon plans to address tems, controls for laser-guided about 5% of items that were sup- months ending in September, limitations in Afghanistan make it the failings identified by SIGAR, bombs, night-vision devices and posed to have been tracked since compared to the previous quarter. difficult to monitor the U.S.-pro- Thomas Croci, deputy assistant other equipment provided to the October 2016 have never been in- Most of the articles supplied to vided equipment and how it’s be- secretary of defense for Afghanis- Afghan government, a U.S. gov- ventoried at all. the Afghan security forces during ing used, the report said. tan, Pakistan and Central Asia, ernment watchdog agency said Inadequate tracking means that the period covered in the report, Although U.S. monitors aren’t said in a comment included in the Thursday. “sensitive technology remains from 2017 to this year, were night- required to complete enhanced in- report. The goods transferred to the Af- susceptible to theft or loss,” and vision devices, SIGAR said. In De- spections when security condi- “DoD recognizes the impor- ghan government are “some of the the Combined Security Transition cember 2017, CSTC-A found “a se- tions prevent them from doing so, tance of providing the greatest most sensitive of all defense arti- Command-Afghanistan, which is rious deficiency in [night-vision “not conducting all of the inspec- possible accountability for U.S.- cles” and were supposed to be ful- responsible for monitoring the device] accountability” resulting tions limits the command’s ability funded equipment provided to ly inventoried by the U.S. every equipment, is less able to verify from discrepancies in reports it to verify reported numbers of lost (Afghan forces),” Croci said. year, to ensure they were being that Afghan units “are using these was receiving from Afghan gov- and destroyed articles, and dis- used for their intended purpose articles in accordance with their ernment officials and data that cover additional broken or mis- and were not transferred to a third transfer agreements,” the report U.S. personnel collected, it said. sing articles the (Afghan forces) [email protected] party without U.S.

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