Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered weapons dominate battlefields across the globe, including the Russia-Ukraine, US-Israel war against Iran, and Israel’s war against Palestine, in which AI technologies have reportedly played a significant role.
Reports suggest that the US War Department used Anthropic’s Claude AI in Operation Epic Fury against Iran. Experts have warned that the rise in the use of AI weapons could put human input at risk.
AI-powered weapons shorten the military kill chain and operate faster than the “speed of thought”.
For the uninitiated, kill chain here refers to the process of target identification and legal approval for strike execution.
The US and Israel launched nearly 900 strikes on Iran during the first 12 hours of operations.
Academics studying AI warned that this process of “decision compression” could minimize human involvement to just rubber-stamp automated aircraft.
David Leslie, professor of ethics, technology and society at Queen Mary University of London, said: “This is the next era of military strategy and military technology.”
He warned that over-reliance on AI could lead to cognitive overload.
Ukraine has also heavily integrated artificial intelligence into its military operations against Russia, particularly in drone warfare.
The increasing role of AI in military operations is evidenced by the recent feud between Anthropic and the Pentagon. Anthropic deployed its AI models across the Department of War in 2024 to speed up war planning and improve intelligence analysis.
However, the San Francisco-based company took issue with using its tools in autonomous AI weapons without human oversight and also raised concerns about the Pentagon using its technology for large-scale domestic surveillance.
Anthropic was blacklisted from federal agencies after it resisted demands from the Pentagon.
