In Ukraine, new American technology won out. Until it is overwhelmed.

Project Maven was supposed to revolutionize modern warfare. But the conflict in Ukraine has highlighted how difficult it is to bring 21st-century data into 19th-century trenches.

The idea sparked a revolt on a large scale on the Google campus. .

Six years ago, the Silicon Valley giant signed a small contract of 9 million dollars to put the skills of some of its developers to more innovative in the service of building an artificial system. intelligence tool that would help the military detect potential targets on the battlefield using drone imagery.

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Engineers and other Google employees argued that the company should have nothing to do with Project Maven, even though it was designed to help the military distinguish between civilians and militants.

The uproar forced the company to withdraw, but the Maven project is not dead: it has simply transferred to other subcontractors. Today, that experiment has become an ambitious experiment tested on the front lines in Ukraine, serving as a key part of the U.S. military's efforts to deliver timely information to soldiers fighting Russian invaders.

< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">So far, the results have been mixed: generals and commanders have a new way to present a complete picture of Russia's movements and communications in a global, user-friendly picture , using algorithms to predict where troops are moving and where attacks might take place.

But the U.S. experience in Ukraine underscored how difficult it is to get 21st-century data into 19th-century trenches. Even as Congress is poised to provide tens of billions of dollars in aid to kyiv, mostly in the form of munitions and long-range artillery, the question remains whether the new technology will be enough to help topple the course of the war at a given moment. moment when the Russians seem to have regained momentum.

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