By employing artificial intelligence, the U.S. Army is raising video games to a new level to create virtual communities populated by hundreds of thousands of fully developed characters. Combining computer game technology, a little show business magic and the expertise of some very clever research engineers, these training tools can be used to practice traditional warfighting techniques as well as to rehearse new skills such as conducting effective negotiation and understanding cultural influences.

Military artificial intelligence programs are making humans, not systems, the focus of their development efforts as they study methods to make tools easier to use. Programs are being focused on using artificial intelligence to free people for the most important tasks and incorporating automation to save lives.

The purpose of artificial intelligence is to create systems that are capable of human-level reasoning. One practical outcome of this research is the capability to make technology invisible to the user. Increasing automation and autonomy are beginning to appear in applications ranging from robots capable of independently navigating and mapping terrain to interfaces that can understand spoken commands to wireless communications systems that automatically configure themselves.

The United States needs a national emergency communications architecture to provide standards that public safety responders at all levels can rely on for coordination of efforts. Legislation could be necessary to ensure that commercial carriers are part of the solution as the government seeks to leverage commercial, state, federal and defense assets to form a standardized emergency network.

The federal government is exploring new technologies to ensure vital communications links among government officials in times of crisis. At the heart of these efforts is the worldwide transition to Internet protocol telephony and its broad capabilities. Given the global nature of these communications changes, the government is turning to the international test arena to evaluate new priority telecommunications approaches.

Iraqi insurgents are not the only adversaries adept at adapting—cybervillains also have learned to transform their tactics and circumvent new ways of protecting information infrastructures. Despite improvements in security software and practices, crackers, criminals and even nation-states continue to take advantage of an unsecured Domain Name System, flawed technologies and minimal testing and commercialization options for researchers.

A former boss used to remind all of us, "Security is like oxygen. You never think about it until you don't have it. And when you don't have it, you don't think about anything else." But this brings to mind the question, security of what?

Our disabled veterans should know that their sacrifice brings opportunity and their efforts today will be rewarded with lifelong personal growth tomorrow through continued service to their government. We must seek to replenish the science and technology labor force in government with wounded veterans, not only for their sake but for our own continued survival.

As a multinational alliance, NATO requires a high degree of interoperability across all of its command, control, communications and computer systems to function effectively. This interoperability also is necessary at all command levels as the alliance concentrates on overseas missions.

Risk management is essential to successful business practices as well as to victorious military operations. Although danger is inherent in many of the duties of the armed forces, planning for operational contingencies can reduce the risks and save lives. Mitigating risk in a coalition environment is even more imperative as a variety of policies, equipment and training and security procedures complicates the scenarios that planners must consider.