AI is changing the way we fight wars.
Developing technologies have always influenced how wars are fought. The industrial revolution, for example, paved the way for battle machines like the tank and weaponized aircraft. However, the implementation of big data and AI in future warfare is different from these older technologies in one vital way – human input will no longer be required. We’re facing a future where wars will be fought not on the battlefield, but across cyber-space.
Attack of the Drones
Drones are nothing new. The US military has be using them to fight wars in the middle east since George Bush was in charge, and they’ve doubled in number under the Obama administration. Military officials have applauded these flying robots for their ability to carry out precise strikes on targets without the need for more aggressive military action.
These older drones worked by remote satellite with soldiers safely controlling them from the states. However, the US military is currently investing a huge sum of money into developing autonomous and semiautonomous weapons: weapons that can kill without the need of human intervention.
In October last year, DARPA (The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) sent Bender, an AI powered drone, on a test flight to assess its decision making abilities. Using state-of-the-art cameras and machine learning, Bender can differentiate between innocent civilians and armed threats without the need for human command. Watch him go in the video below:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUSvmns10Xk&w=650&h=450]
If this sounds to you an awfully lot like the Terminator films, don’t get ahead of yourself. Daniel Jones, a senior defence analyst for intelligence group Kable, suggests that people fear the rise of military robots too much. “You can be a little bit more optimistic sometimes and not shut off areas of research,” he says, “AI could potentially be a benefit.”
These benefits include a reduction in the number of military casualties, a more economically efficient military and an easing of pressure on soldiers suffering from stress and exhaustion.
A New Cold War
One of the biggest worries about developing these kinds of technologies is that it will lead to an autonomous weapons arms race. Nations are always seeking to one-up each other in terms of their military might. Inside the Pentagon, there appears to be a lack of consensus about whether the US should seek to ban the development of unmanned weapons through the UN or instead bolster their armoury to prepare for threats their enemies might create.
An open letter from the Future of Life Organization, signed by the likes of Stephen Hawking and Tesla’s Elon Musk, argues that “the key question for humanity today is whether to start a global AI arms race or to prevent it from starting.” This new arms race, the letter suggests, will result in autonomous weapons becoming “the kalashnikovs of tomorrow.”
Luckily, it would appear that many senior military officials are level headed and have no intention of building machines that can kill without meaningful human interaction, though the US claims to only be a decade away from being able to.
Centaur Warfighting
A relatively new concept in the world of defense is the idea of centaur warfighting. Named after the half-man half-horse of greek mythology, centaur warfighting basically means an amalgamation of man and machine in battles. Think Iron Man’s suit and you’ll get the jist.
One such project born from this idea is TALOS (or Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit). TALOS is a battery operated, bullet-proof exoskeleton that can be worn by soldiers on the front line. The suit utilizes advancements in nanotechnology to create a liquid skin that solidifies when it’s impacted upon by a bullet or explosion and thus protects its wearer.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjnBXxqyn44&w=650&h=450]
The idea of men working alongside artificial intelligence would seem to strike the perfect balance between human decision making and algorithmic precision. Autonomous drones could seek out targets, aim weapons and feedback the information to a fighter pilot who would make the final decision to pull the trigger, for example.
A machine for peace?
Artificial intelligence and robotics have the potential to improve humankind like never before, or to destroy it in the blink of an eye. I believe that military officials and engineers alike should take the small window of opportunity available to us at present to focus on the ways in which AI can help to bring peace to war zones, rather than developing technologies that could increase levels of devastation. It won’t be long before these seemingly advanced technologies are commonplace and in the hands of our enemies. We’d be wise to take the moral high ground and show the world that AI and robotics could be a force for the greater good.