AI warfare
AI warfare refers to the use of artificial intelligence technologies to enhance, automate, or replace human decision-making and operations in armed conflicts. AI is used to speed up military intelligence analysis of large volumes of data.[1] AI military tools make recommendations on what to target.[2] The U.S. has declared it will become an 'AI-first' warfighting force.[3] Abdul-Rahman al-Rawi, a 20-year-old student, is the first civilian killed in airstrikes carried out with AI assistance in a US strike in Iraq in 2024.[4]
The AI warfare raises a fundamental question: who decides when lethal force is used—humans or machines.[5]
2026 Iran war
The 2026 Iran war has been described as the "first AI war", although the U.S. and Israel have previously used AI to identify targets during the Gaza war.[6] The United States has used AI tools to attack Iran.[7] These tools have been used for military intelligence, targeting, and damage assessment in the war in Iran.[8] Using the Maven smart system, the U.S. attacked 1000 targets in the first 24 hours of the war and 5000 targets over the course of 10 days.[9] While the U.S. had used Maven in 2022 to share targeting information with Ukraine and strike against Iraq, Syria, and against the Houthis in 2024, Iran's attacks are its biggest.[9] Authorities are looking into whether artificial intelligence was involved in the airstrike on an Iranian girls' school that killed 170 civilians, the majority of whom were female students.[10] The United States Central Command emphasizes that humans make final decisions on what to shoot.[11]
References
- ↑ Jones, Craig; Kinsella, Helen M. (17 March 2026). "Iran war shows how AI speeds up military ‘kill chains’" (in en-US). http://theconversation.com/iran-war-shows-how-ai-speeds-up-military-kill-chains-278492.
- ↑ Booth, Robert; Milmo, Dan (3 March 2026). "Iran war heralds era of AI-powered bombing quicker than ‘speed of thought’" (in en-GB). The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/mar/03/iran-war-heralds-era-of-ai-powered-bombing-quicker-than-speed-of-thought.
- ↑ "How Project Maven became central to America’s AI-powered warfare" (in en). 10 March 2026. https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/project-maven-ai-us-airstrike-iraq-anthropic-b2929138.html.
- ↑ "AI, a dead student, and US airstrikes: The civilian caught up in a new age of warfare" (in en). 10 March 2026. https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/middle-east/ai-airstrike-civilian-killed-us-centcom-iraq-anthropic-b2926712.html.
- ↑ Manson, Katrina. "Meet the Gods of AI Warfare" (in en-US). Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. https://www.wired.com/story/project-maven-katrina-manson-book-excerpt/.
- ↑ Jones, Craig; Kinsella, Helen M. (17 March 2026). "Iran war shows how AI speeds up military ‘kill chains’" (in en-US). http://theconversation.com/iran-war-shows-how-ai-speeds-up-military-kill-chains-278492.
- ↑ Booth, Robert; Milmo, Dan (3 March 2026). "Iran war heralds era of AI-powered bombing quicker than ‘speed of thought’" (in en-GB). The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/mar/03/iran-war-heralds-era-of-ai-powered-bombing-quicker-than-speed-of-thought.
- ↑ Lieber, Daniel Michaels and Dov (7 March 2026). "How AI Is Turbocharging the War in Iran" (in en-US). https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/how-ai-is-turbocharging-the-war-in-iran-aca59002.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Manson, Katrina (12 March 2026). "‘God, It’s Terrifying’: How the Pentagon Got Hooked on AI War Machines". Bloomberg. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2026-03-12/iran-war-tests-project-maven-us-ai-war-strategy.
- ↑ "Speeding Up the “Kill Chain”: Pentagon Bombs Thousands of Targets in Iran Using Palantir AI" (in en). https://www.democracynow.org/2026/3/18/ai_warfare.
- ↑ "US military confirms use of ‘advanced AI tools’ in war against Iran" (in en). https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/11/us-military-confirms-use-of-advanced-ai-tools-in-war-against-iran.
See also
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