Why Ukraine’s Weapons Need Data for Training—and What It Can Offer Allies

Finding people in the forest

A drone view showed a forest of dark trunks, shadows and snow patches. To a person, it seemed empty; an artificial intelligence system instead marked a small human shape, likely a soldier, among the trees.

The detection depended on extensive training material. Military A.I. systems need examples of how people fight, much as chatbots learn from examples of human writing.

A large battlefield collection

Ukraine has assembled videos, audio and text from the war over nearly five years. Its repository, known as Avenger Labs, contains five million battlefield videos. About 30 Ukrainian defense companies are using the collection to develop A.I. weapons. The government is now giving firms in allied countries access as it seeks to strengthen security partnerships.

Access tied to software licenses

Ukraine is offering the data without charge, but participating companies must give the Ukrainian military licenses for software they develop. The first agreement will provide access to 12 British defense companies.

Ukraine is also in talks with other countries. The arrangement gives firms access to training data while securing the military rights to resulting software.

A sought-after training resource

Western companies are developing autonomous weapons, but they lack enough data to train them. Ukraine’s battlefield collection gives it more such material to offer than any other potential partner. The initiative connects Ukraine’s wartime data with defense developers abroad, while requiring that resulting software be licensed to the Ukrainian military.