AI-Driven Weapons Systems Lead Today's Arms Race

When it comes to advanced artificial intelligence, much of the debate has focused on whether white-collar workers are now facing the sort of extinction-level threat that the working class once did with robotics. And while it's suddenly likely that AI will be capable of duplicating a good part of what lawyers, accountants, teachers, programmers, and--yes--journalists do, that's not even where the most significant revolution is likely to occur. The latest AI--known as generative pre-trained transformers (GPT)--promises to utterly transform the geopolitics of war and deterrence. It will do so in ways that are not necessarily comforting, and which may even turn existential. On one hand, this technology could make war less lethal and possibly strengthen deterrence. By dramatically expanding the role of AI-directed drones in air forces, navies and armies, human lives could be spared.