Technological Race – Will it Revolutionize Battlefield?

Technological Race – Will it Revolutionize Battlefield?

Photo illust. AI by Pixabay

This post is also available in: heעברית (Hebrew)

“The race to build next-generation technology is reshaping the contours of global relations.” However, new technologies like artificial intelligence “will neither cause a revolution on the battlefield in the next 10 to 15 years nor… ensure military victory for those who master it.” 

This is the analysis of former IDF Military Intelligence chief, Maj. Gen. (ret.) Amos Yadlin, currently the head of INSS – Institute for National Security Studies, in a new position paper.

He described “the competition between the United States and China to become the world leader in artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing and fifth-generation wireless networks” as capturing much of the world’s imagination. Furthermore, he stated that many predict that “these technologies will bring about the next revolution in military affairs by improving the collection and analysis of data, encryption, the transfer of large amounts of information and the creation of autonomous weapons systems.”

According to jerusalempost.com, he said that AI-based systems might be fooled by an inability to read unpredictable situations, the way that small alterations to people’s appearances have helped fool expensive facial recognition technology. He said that, throughout history, anytime a new technology is introduced, it is eventually mitigated to some extent by countermeasures. 

No technology can help a country succeed on the battlefield if the goals themselves are amorphous or unrealistic, stated Yadlin, noting Russia’s recent success in Syria as compared to the US’s blunders in the same arena.