Why artificial intelligence will change warfare as much as the invention of gunpowder did
About artificial intelligence (AI) and its inevitable impact on war.
Valeriy Zaluzhny once rightly noted that modern warfare has reached a technological dead end. To overcome it, we need a new "gunpowder" – a breakthrough that will change the rules of the game, just as the Chinese invention of gunpowder once changed the course of wars, which remains relevant a century later.
This "gunpowder" has already been found. Its name is artificial intelligence.
We are already actively using it, but mainly in the format of robotization of services for civilian purposes.
Personally, I use AI for: training and self-education; automating boring tasks at work; analyzing information according to specified algorithms; working with images and texts; checking children's homework online; even as a voice guide when traveling through an unfamiliar village. But this is just the beginning .
How AI will change war
The military use of artificial intelligence is not a matter of the distant future, but a matter of the coming years. We are on the verge of a radical transformation of warfare.
Possible applications:
1. Intelligence and data analysis – AI is able to process terabytes of satellite imagery, intercepts, and real-time intelligence faster than any human analyst team.
2. Autonomous drones and robotic swarms are devices that independently find a target, coordinate actions and strike without the participation of an operator.
3. New generation cyber weapons – automatic search and exploitation of vulnerabilities in enemy systems.
4. Information operations – creation of hyper-realistic fakes, simulation of authoritative sources, targeted psychological attacks.
5. Autonomous decision-making – algorithms that can prioritize goals and plan operations.
But AI in warfare is not only a new opportunity, but also a new threat:
- Loss of control over autonomous combat systems;
- massive information attacks that destroy the ability of society to distinguish truth from fiction;
- escalation of conflicts due to algorithmic errors;
- Lack of clear responsibility for decisions made by machines.
Conclusion
Just as gunpowder once led humanity from one era of warfare to another, so artificial intelligence is on the verge of becoming the main strategic resource of the 21st century. The only question is who will be the first to learn how to use it not as a robotic civilian service, but as a real weapon, and whether we can set the rules of the game.
I was thinking about this text for a month, and I created it in 20 minutes, 19 of which were spent checking for errors and meanings, setting tasks and clarifying them.
The future is here, and we are not ready for it.
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