Artificial intelligence and war

Bruce Newsome reviews the recently published book: "Strategy, Evolution, and War: From Apes to Artificial Intelligence," authored by Kenneth Payne and published by Georgetown University Press. Artificial intelligence (AI) has been explicit in the practices and policies of defence since at least the 1970s, at least in high-capacity countries, given the exponential growth in the power of electronic computing per unit cost. It was already specified in training and forecasting simulations, decision-making aids, targeting aids, robotics, adaptive navigation systems (as in the Tomahawk Cruise Missile), and ballistic missile defence. Any child with a video game could experience AI. AI raced up Western governmental priorities in the 2000s by application to countering terrorism; in 2009, the US escalated its cyber capabilities and authorities, partly on the promise of AI; in 2014, the Russians seemed to know first what the defenders of Ukraine were doing, in part because of integration of AI; and in 2016, Western governments consensually blamed Russia for unprecedented interference in American and other elections, partly aided by AI.