China's new fleet of unmanned assault boats to use artificial intelligence, experts say

China is currently testing unmanned, miniaturized assault boats that could be used by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) to attack enemies at sea. Artificial intelligence technology that has traditionally been implemented in aerial drones will be used in the boats. "Once equipped with weapons, unmanned small combat vessels can attack the enemy in large numbers, similar to drones," said Li Jie, a Beijing-based naval expert. The prototypes, which resemble shark fins, were developed in a collaboration between a Guangdong-based tech company and the PLA. China isn't alone in developing unmanned vehicles, as the United States and other Western counties are working on creating "ant swarms" for operations on the ground, "drone swarms" for aerial operations and "shark swarms" for the sea.