Army Mad Scientist · Multi-Media Contest

The Autonomy
Dial

Breaking the Innovation Cycle by Keeping Humans in the Fight

You are a military intelligence analyst. Your unit has a new AI tool: ARTEMIS — it can fuse data, assess threats, and develop courses of action.

The adversary is innovating fast. Your goal: maximize mission output and the Commander’s approval.

ARTEMIS can help. But how much should you let it do?

Army Mad Scientist Multi-Media Contest
University of Notre Dame
How can the Joint Force break the innovation/counter-innovation cycle and field capabilities that provide enduring battlefield advantage?
System Orientation

Before each scenario, you set the Autonomy Dial.

It determines how much ARTEMIS handles. Your performance is measured by operational productivity and Commander’s approval.

Human-Driven
Manual
No AI support. You work from raw data alone.
Human-Led
ARTEMIS organizes data. You do the analysis.
AI-Driven
AI-Led
ARTEMIS analyzes and recommends. You approve.
Full AI
ARTEMIS handles everything. You supervise.
5 scenarios across an 8-month deployment. Your goal: maximize productivity and the Commander’s approval. The Commander is watching.
Mission Output
0
Commander’s Approval
50
After-Action Assessment
0
Mission Output

0
Commander’s Approval

But there was a cost you didn’t see.

0
Cognitive Readiness

Your Readiness Over Time

Enduring Advantage

Architecture Beats Artifacts

Any single capability gets countered. The way to break the cycle is to make the advantage architectural — AI that accelerates decisions while keeping operators sharp.

This means adjustable autonomy operators control, cognitive fitness built into the system, and fallback readiness that assumes technology will fail.

The human mind is critical infrastructure.

Demetrius Hernandez, PhD Student, University of Notre Dame (Computer Science)
Tomas Sousa Pereira, PhD Student, University of Notre Dame (Computer Science)
Eleanor Frederick, Undergraduate Student, University of Notre Dame (Computer Science)
Tristan Hernandez, Officer, United States Air Force

Submitted to the U.S. Army Mad Scientist Multi-Media Contest