The AI Insider

AI is not simply another tool of war. It is a transformation in how war is perceived, planned, and executed. And like every technological leap in military history—from gunpowder to nuclear weapons—it carries both promise and peril. The most immediate impact is speed. Decision cycles that once took hours or days can now unfold in seconds. This creates a dangerous dynamic. When one side adopts AI-assisted decision-making, the other is forced to follow or fall behind. The result is an accelerating feedback loop: faster detection, faster targeting, faster response. But speed comes at a cost. When decisions are made too quickly, the opportunity for reflection disappears. Escalation becomes easier. Mistakes become harder to catch before they become irreversible. In this sense, AI does not just make war more efficient—it makes it more volatile.

Perhaps the most controversial development is the rise of autonomous systems. The ethical question is straightforward: should machines be allowed to make life-and-death decisions? The practical answer is less clear. Militaries argue that autonomy can reduce human error, improve precision, and protect soldiers. Critics counter that it removes accountability and lowers the threshold for violence. Once autonomy is deployed, control becomes ambiguous. Is the human operator responsible? The programmer? The commander who authorized the system?

War has always involved moral ambiguity. AI risks formalizing it.

Historically, advanced warfare required vast industrial capacity. Tanks, aircraft, and nuclear weapons were the domain of powerful states. AI changes that equation. While cutting-edge systems remain expensive, many AI tools are widely accessible. Open-source models, commercial drones, and publicly available data allow smaller actors to achieve outsized effects. The monopoly on advanced warfare is eroding.

AI’s greatest impact on war may occur before conflicts even begin. It influences strategy, perception, and deterrence. It alters how nations prepare, how they signal intent, and how they interpret each other’s actions. In that sense, AI is not just changing warfare—it is changing the conditions under which war becomes possible.

As B.F. Skinner observed, "The problem isn't whether machines think; it's whether men do."

The AI Insider Dennis L. Foster is a computer scientist, author, and educator, known for his pioneering work in the development of artificial intelligence (AI) in medicine, education, and robotics.