The Evolution of Artificial Intelligence and Future of National Security

Artificial intelligence is all the rage these days. In the popular media, regular cyber systems seem almost passe, as writers focus on AI and conjure up images of everything from real-life Terminator robots to more benign companions. In intelligence circles, China's uses of closed-circuit television, facial recognition technology, and other monitoring systems suggest the arrival of Big Brother--if not quite in 1984, then only about forty years later. At the Pentagon, legions of officers and analysts talk about the AI race with China, often with foreboding admonitions that the United States cannot afford to be second in class in this emerging realm of technology. In policy circles, people wonder about the ethics of AI--such as whether we can really delegate to robots the ability to use lethal force against America's enemies, however bad they may be.