How AI can revolutionize warfare

Automatic weapons

Robots, drones, torpedoes… all types of weapons can be transformed into automatic systems thanks to complex sensors managed by AI algorithms that allow computers to “see”. “Autonomy doesn’t mean a weapon can wake up in the morning and decide to start a war,” explains Stuart Russell, a computer science professor at the University of California at Berkeley. “That is they have the ability to locate, select and attack human targets, or inhabited targets without intervention.”

Most of the weapons are still at the concept or prototype stage, but the Russia-Ukraine war gives an idea of ​​their potential. Remote-controlled drones are not new, but are becoming increasingly independent and used by both sides, forcing people underground to seek refuge. This may be one of the biggest immediate changes, according to Russell. “The inevitable consequence of using automatic weapons is that exposure anywhere on the battlefield would mean a death sentence,” Russell said.

Automatic weapons have a number of potential advantages when attacking enemies. They can operate more efficiently, are cheaper to produce, and eliminate adverse emotions such as fear or anger caused by battlefield situations. But that also raises ethical questions. For example, if it is cheap and easy to produce, there is no limit to the firepower that a belligerent can deploy. They can launch millions of such weapons at once if they want to level a city or destroy a people.

Automated vehicles

Submarines, ships and aircraft can operate autonomously, providing enhanced reconnaissance, reconnaissance or logistical support in remote or dangerous environments. Such vehicles are at the heart of the Pentagon-led “Replicator” program. The program’s goal is to deploy several thousand cheap and easily replaceable systems in diverse areas from sea to space.

Many companies are also developing and testing autonomous vehicles, such as California-based Anduril, with an underwater vehicle optimized for a variety of defense and commercial missions, including long-range oceanographic sensing, geodesy. mining and anti-submarine warfare.

Tactical software

Powered by AI, which can synthesize mountains of data collected by satellites, radar, sensors and espionage, tactical software gives planners a real advantage. “Everyone at the Department of Defense needs to understand that data is truly ammunition in AI warfare,” shared Alexandr Wang, director of Scale AI. “We have the largest military software suite in the world, producing 22 terabytes of data every day. If we can perfectly arrange and combine the data, we can create a huge advantage when using intelligence Artificial intelligence in the military”.

Scale AI has a contract to deploy language modeling on the top secret network of a large unit in the US military. Chatbot named “Donovan” allows commanders to plan and act within minutes instead of weeks.

An Khang (According to AFP)