It was retired four-star Gen. John Michael Loh of Williamsburg, former vice chief of staff of the Air Force and the developer of the famed F-15 fighter-bomber, who brought to my attention a much note-worthy event.
Kelly Shinners, a rising senior at William & Mary, interning with the Air University Innovation Accelerator project, developed CHUCKGPT, a customized version of ChatGPT that is designed to assist players of wargames.
According to William & Mary, this innovation has gathered attention from the Air Force, including from Secretary Frank Kendall, to whom Shinners presented her work.
Jeremy VanEgmond, chief of the educational lab at AUiX, is quoted in W&M’s news release saying: “She has taken on various projects that are making waves at Air University, including a customized wargame GPT that’s backed by impressive dataset and is getting attention from several leaders within the organization. Her work will be featured at the AU Symposium for AI in the showcase.”
I asked Shinners, an international relations major and economics minor, what made her choose a career path in national defense?
“My interest in national security and defense seems to be from growing up as a military child,” she said in an interview with the Gazette. “My dad’s career in the Army and DoD security cooperations post-retirement always intrigued me and ultimately led to choose a degree in international relations and pursue a career in the Department of Defense.”
As it turned out, Shinners’ interest widened, and she began an internship with Air University’s Innovation Accelerator Program under the supervision of Jeremy VanEgmond.
“When Jeremy introduced the idea of integrating Air University’s wargaming agenda, I had no idea where to begin,” she said. “My background was in international relations, not computer science or machine learning. I had heard of ChatGPT before but had never fully experimented with it and did not quite understand its capabilities. After some research on small and large language models, I chose to create a custom GPT because of how user friendly the ChatGPT program is to those without coding background.”
Shinners explained that her CHUCKGPT, short for Comprehensive Heuristic Utility for Combat Knowledge, is different from ChatGPT and other GPT chats in what constitutes its knowledge background and how it is programmed to interact with other users. GPT stands for generative pre-trained transformer, a type of AI model.
“CHUCKGPT’s knowledge base has been uploaded with specifically chosen documents such as Air Force doctrine, international law/agreements and wargame specific information. Overall, CHUCKGPT acts as a powerful tool for military training and strategy development, fostering a more dynamic and effective approach to wargaming,” she said.
Although GPT and different versions of it are considered very “smart,” according to Shinners, its advice can be very pedestrian.
“In the early stages of developing the GPT, I remember a particularly amusing incident,” she recalled. “When we were testing its ability to give military-style advice, we had a test scenario where the GPT was supposed to recommend a strategic move for a fictional wargame situation. Instead of suggesting a traditional military tactic, the GPT recommended setting up a coffee and donut stand to ‘boost troop morale.’”
“It was a reminder that while AI can be incredible intelligent, it sometimes throws a curveball that keeps us on our toes and adds a bit of humor to the process. It highlighted the importance of continuous tweaking and fine-tuning so that the GPT stays on mission — quite literally,” Shinners concluded.
Frank Shatz is a Williamsburg resident. He is the author of “Reports from a Distant Place,” the compilation of his selected columns. The book is available at the Bruton Parish Shop and Amazon.com.
