The Future of Automated AI Warfare

Automated military systems aren't a deterrent, they are simply part of the AI arms race. The U.S. may not even be the leader.

Hello Everyone, 📑 | Read Online.

I’d like you to listen to a serious topic. You might not agree with what I’m about to say. I’ve noticed there are’t many independent sources covering this important topic. I have some major reservations and concerns with how the world is proceeding in its use of AI.

Today’s essay will be a bit different from my usual. As National Defense spending, geopolitical conflict, and advances in Generative AI intersect, militaries will become a lot more automated. There’s no higher authority than what these militaries think they must or should do, or are directed to do.

In mid 2024, branches of the U.S. military are not hitting the brakes on generative AI after decades of Department of Defense experiments with broader AI technology, they are on the contrary, significantly ramping up in 2024 said experiments and private contracts with AI military startups. I watch this space closely, because the outcomes can be catastrophic.

Existential risk to the human species is not a myth, it’s a real area of study. Elon Musk doesn’t go to bed listening to podcasts about the end of civilization for fun, there’s some probability that it will actually happen in the next 150 years. Let’s talk about the dark side of AI in geopolitical uncertainty in a world of hegemonies, empires in decline and technological superpowers. It’s not an accident I called my Newsletter, AI Supremacy.

The war in Ukraine and Israeli uses AI technology facilitated by U.S. companies, means the intersection of drone technology, asymmetric warfare tactics and AI is evolving faster than we ever anticipated. Then there’s the automated fighter jets. The US Air Force plans to have more than 1,000 AI-flown planes in commission, with the first in operation by 2028 and it’s still probably behind China who underreported their National Defense and military spending.

Even back in 2022, according to the Washington, D.C.-based think tank the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), China’s National Defense spending was just behind the U.S. at $711 billion.

With a new Nationalism spawning in the U.S. in an era of marked U.S. exceptionalism and increasing U.S. protectionism, the U.S. is parading an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of U.S. airpower. But the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence, not a human pilot.

• Due to the sensitivity of this topic and what I’m about to say, this has to go behind a paywall.

• The rise of AI in the military is a bad omen of things to come. Is the U.S. ready for a global conflict at scale and of a practical display of the AI arms race?

• Reader discretion is advised. ⚠️☠️🚨

Audio version 🎧 for Paid Subscribers below. 👇🏻