The Russia-Ukraine war may become a testing ground for AI

It can give a clear view of just how deep AI's impact on war can be

- JAMES STAVRIDIS

Artificial intelligence (AI) is, suddenly, everywhere. We are awash in ductively-from agriculture to climate change to engineering. And, equally, there are plenty of cautionary notes being struck about using AI to control societies, manipulate economies, defeat commercial opponents, and generally fulfil Arthur C. Clarke's visions of machines dominating man in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Thus far, however, relatively little has been written about the implications of AI on warfare and geopolitics. For better and worse, those arenas also lend themselves to a variety of ways in which new technologies can suddenly break apart paradigms. Think of Agincourt in 1415, a medieval battle in which the flower of the French nobility-sporting the key technology of that age, plate armour-were slaughtered at long range through an emerging technology, English longbowmen led by King Henry V. Military technology-submarines, radar, sonar, nuclear weapons-can change the global balance in an instant.