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Recommended Innovation Articles (and Commentary) 3: Algorithms at War: The Promise, Peril, and the Limits of Artificial Intelligence
This is a series I am posting to Medium where I share links to articles concerning innovation, strategic change, design thinking, and related topics. People ask me frequently for article suggestions, and I also maintain several innovation distribution lists where I provide commentary and suggestions on one article at a time. All thoughts below are of my own opinion, and while most of the linked articles will be freely available, some may be behind paywalls due to where the article is published. Follow me on Medium, Twitter, and LinkedIn for new articles in this series.
Today’s recommended article is on AI, human-machine teaming, ethics, law and where the future perhaps extends on complex warfare with advanced artificial intelligence. This is a recent (2020) article and comes from a writing team out of the USMC and Quantico. The article is available for download at the link below but it is behind a paywall. Like my last post in this series, many have libraries (on bases or if in a university) and there are always options on how to gain access:
https://academic.oup.com/isr/article-abstract/22/3/526/5522301?redirectedFrom=fulltext
A few key take-aways for those with the time to read this:
The authors unpack how military (and political) bureaucratic structures, behaviors and culture will unavoidably shape, often slow or even warp how AI is integrated into warfighting. This topic might be the primary one for USSPACECOM and the U.S. Space Force, but also most every other service and Combatant Command to think about for the next decade of tech experimentation, acquisition, and simulation in war gaming. Frankly, we all are part of and sometimes stuck within that bureaucracy, and we all wittingly or unwittingly participate in how it is exercised. How might this influence how you think about AI in the future?
Algorithms that learn, sense, and help machines move through the battlefield have the potential to increase military power. Yet, states will wage algorithmic warfare from inside the labyrinth of the modern defense bureaucracy, and the resulting plans and battles will still involve human judgment, even if…
