Alex Kostikov* discusses how AI could be used as a weapon of war.
“Generals are always preparing for the last war” – Winston Churchill
In this article, I will tell you about what will happen when individual artificial intelligence becomes a military technology.
Something that can change the face of our world and affect the fate of millions of people is called “physiological advantage” and the moment when we get to know it is already incredibly close.
Don’t think that this is a distant fantasy.
While you are reading these lines, this technology is already being created somewhere…
A delusion that creates an illusion
When we talk about the next world war, everyone thinks first about nuclear strikes, and this completely fits into the framework of our delusions related to weapons.
When man began to create weapons 40-50 thousand years ago, in fact, he tried to compensate for his own physical weakness.
A strong and trained man can pull 90 kg with one hand, and a female chimpanzee 571 kg! On average, a monkey is about 4-5 times stronger than a human comparable in size.
We do not have powerful teeth or strong claws, and our skin is deprived of wool protection.
This harsh reality forced us to create weapons to survive.
We developed, and the first stick turned into a knife, then there was a bow and arrows, the first guns, cannons, and finally a nuclear bomb.
All this is essentially an attempt to improve the tools of physical protection that we need because of the comparative physiological weakness of our body.
But our primary weapon – our intellect – has remained the same as it was thousands of years ago.
What is a stronger brain or claws and teeth?
Our brains have helped us survive and become the dominant species on this planet.
The history of our biological species is an illustration of how the best “claws and teeth” in the world lost out to human intelligence.
Nuclear weapons are our modern “claws and teeth” which, despite their monstrous power, will surely lose to a new type of weapon – individual artificial intelligence.
On the wrong track
The main emphasis in modern technological developments related to the military application of artificial intelligence is the creation of autonomous robots and weapon control systems.
New combat platforms without human intervention can identify targets, fire, and maneuver in a combat situation.
The newest direction in this technological area involves combining such robots into groups, which, according to the developers, will achieve the effect of emergence—new properties that are not inherent in the combining elements separately.
In fact, this is an illusion because emergence is achievable only when fundamentally different components are combined into a single complex.
It is for this reason that the most effective components of the combat systems of the future will be the human brain and artificial intelligence – combined into a single bio-cybernetic symbiosis.
Merging details
The human brain is a slow and rather weak information processing mechanism.
But it has plasticity and energy efficiency unattainable for modern computers, multiplied by the excellent motor skills of our body.
On the other hand, computer systems are not just faster than us in processing information.
In fact, in terms of signal transmission speed, a computer outperforms biological tissue by 3 million times.
What does it mean in combat conditions?
For the simplest deliberate action (a conscious reaction to a new situation on the battlefield), a person needs at least half a second, while a computer system only needs 0.00016 milliseconds.
To get a sense of the true scale of this advantage, let’s reverse the situation.
Imagine that right now you are thinking fast like an electronic system, and your opponent is lagging you as the biological brain lags behind the computer.
You have aimed your weapon and prepared to shoot, and it takes your biological opponent 416 hours to realize your actions.
You aim and shoot, and your opponent will be able to react to it only after 17 days!
The fight will be over long before the biological adversary can figure out what’s going on.
An ordinary soldier will turn into a helpless target on a physiological level, unable to protect himself and analyse the surrounding reality in time.
Add to this the sensors available to the electronic system in all ranges (and not just in the visible spectrum) and the memory capacity of clearly and without failures to manipulate a huge amount of digital data.
All this suggests that combining the human brain and artificial intelligence into a single complex will not only increase their overall effectiveness but will create a fundamentally new combat system.
Physiological advantage – what would it look like?
Outwardly, soldiers equipped with individual artificial intelligence will not differ in anything special.
Don’t expect spectacular Hollywood-style looks.
The fact that you have bio-cybernetic combat systems in front of you will become clear only when soldiers equipped with individual AI begin to act with incredible speed, thoughtfulness, coherence, and accuracy.
No screens and buttons – everything is at the level of intuition
Monitors in front of your eyes, headphones, special glasses with liquid crystal elements, and other means of communication will no longer be needed.
Individual artificial intelligence will be perceived by the soldier’s neocortex as his own intuition.
Each soldier of the unit will feel what his group is doing, where the commander is, and what their task is now.
Edge of new excellence
New sensory capabilities will allow you to determine the type of vehicle, its parameters, and even technical condition by the sound of the engine.
Individual artificial intelligence and scanning sensor devices will make it possible to feel the smell of explosives hidden under clothes or in the trunk of a car, how a scout who pretends to be a civilian is worried and sweating, and the movements of an enemy hiding in an ambush behind the wall of a neighbouring house.
But the most important and decisive advantage will arise at the moment when artificial intelligence gives the living human brain an incredible reaction speed, which will increase the speed of decision-making by an order of magnitude.
Intuitive aiming means that in order to hit the target, it will not be necessary to point the barrel with the help of the eyes and sight.
A soldier with individual artificial intelligence will intuitively feel when the weapon is in a position in which the target he is looking at will be hit.
Now pulling the trigger of small arms is a defining indicator of the preparedness of the shooter and takes approximately 0.0045 seconds.
During this time, the weapon has time to deviate from the aiming position, which greatly reduces the distance of a real shooting battle.
A soldier equipped with an individual artificial intelligence system will be able to fully compensate for this negative effect and conduct targeted fire at the maximum possible distance for his weapon.
All this is not a complete list of benefits.
Twenty-four hours a day, individual artificial intelligence will protect its owner and fight for his life in case of injury.
Even a seriously wounded soldier who has individual artificial intelligence will continue to help his combat unit and pose a mortal danger to the enemy.
What is the result?
A soldier equipped with a personal AI will be expected to win in an individual confrontation.
In a real battle, even one person with his AI will become a very serious threat to the enemy.
A unit of several fighters with AI at the active moment of the battle will turn into a single perfectly coordinated and fast combat mechanism, capable of operating with incredible accuracy in a completely unfamiliar environment.
Like wolves among sheep
Soldiers with individual AI will not have wrong positions, inconsistent targets, and inaccurate shots.
It will give the impression that they are not wrong at all.
Only ammunition, time, and firepower will remain the actual limitation.
At the same time, the enemy who is lucky enough to hide from a bullet will not be able to get rid of the fear that will strike any living person when meeting with a new type of hybrid infantry.
Soldiers with individual artificial intelligence with mathematical precision and diabolical ingenuity will destroy both biological and fully automatic opponents (robots).
Individual artificial intelligence is not a new machine gun or a drone with a control panel, it is a fundamentally new level of combat skill that can completely change the tactics and strategy of a future war.
It will take time to implement new technology
Even when the system is fully ready and available for use in the army, it will take quite a long time to combine it with the brain of a real soldier.
Given the difficulty in adapting the signal transition point (the place where an artificial signal becomes a nerve impulse and vice versa), the brain and computer will not begin to understand each other immediately, this will require from several months to several years of individual adaptation.
For this reason, it will be practically impossible to catch up with the technological gap already during a military conflict.
Anyone who does not have time to create new technology in advance is guaranteed to lose during hostilities.
And do not rely on nuclear weapons … they will simply take away your button
Soldiers with individual artificial intelligence outwardly will be practically indistinguishable from ordinary people.
They will be able to come to your country without weapons under the guise of refugees or tourists.
After they cross the border, the war will be over for you in every sense.
They will get the enemy everywhere and make it so that there will simply be no one to control nuclear weapons.
A new war will dictate new rules, and this time “victory will fly on the wings of science.”
The only question is to whom?
*Alex Kostikov is a doctor and an independent researcher.
This article first appeared at bdtechtalks.com.
