ABSTRACT
Artificial intelligence (AI) is already in use or slated for use to automate turrets, drones, aircraft, spacecraft, and submarines; to improve missile targeting and missile defense systems; for cyber and electronic warfare, modelling, simulations, and wargaming; and intelligence collection and analysis. AI offers the potential for military operations to evolve from forces fighting as a network to forces fighting as a ‘swarm’. Militaries accustomed to research and development and deployment of innovations, will more readily incorporate AI than others; innovation must be matched with successful integration. In July 2017, China announced its first national strategy on AI – the New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan – and a Three-Year Action Plan in December 2017. Advances by one state in AI may also provide “windows of opportunity” by shifting the military balance of power in their favor.
