NATO partners have made artificial intelligence (AI) a primary priority in an effort to strengthen the alliance’s collective defense, as AI has emerged as the next big area in the theater of battle.
NATO will be celebrating its 75th anniversary at a summit in Washington, D.C., next week. It will also address how to keep NATO safe in a geopolitical environment that is becoming more and more hostile.
The war in Ukraine has had far-reaching effects on global phase; the growing gulf between the West and its most powerful authoritarian opponents has affected everything from trade to defense.
Changes in AI technology are at the core of NATO’s strategy to protect itself in difficult times. With the conflict in Ukraine, the use of drones in kinetic warfare increased dramatically, leading to an AI arms race and the necessity for new offensive and defensive tactics.
Retired Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery, a senior fellow at The Foundation for Defense of Democracies, stated that while there should be concern about combating Chinese and Russian AI capabilities in times of war, concern should not be misconstrued for despair.
In the same way that there are legitimate concerns about countering Chinese and Russian kinetic weapons, including hypersonic maneuverable cruise missiles, the United States can develop efficient offensive and defensive systems to prevent and, in the event that it becomes necessary, defeat hostile activities, he continued.
Under a program called Defense Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA), which collaborates with both public and private businesses to develop “deep technologies” to meet the alliance’s defense concerns, NATO more than doubled the number of its tech accelerator sites in March.
28 of the 32 NATO countries will host testing facilities under DIANA, an initiative to foster innovation in AI, cybersecurity, 5G, hypersonic travel, and autonomous systems within the alliance.
However, because AI is becoming so much more powerful, the alliance is also trying to set limits, especially with regard to using AI during armed conflict.
Former NATO Assistant Secretary General for Defense Investment Marshall Billingslea revealed that there will be doctrinal discussions at NATO to ensure that we don’t have “SKYNET” take over and start engaging in kinetic action without humans making judgments.
Drones are getting more and more sophisticated while staying affordable, and as people add AI to them for attack purposes, a similar amount of AI must be included to counter UAS (unmanned aerial systems) and provide theater missile defense capabilities, he said.
According to Billingslea, the United States now use artificial intelligence (AI) efficiently for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance; however, this application is now being extended throughout NATO.
The alliance’s AI programs are intended to not only gather security and intelligence data from all member states, but also to make better use of that data by reducing the workload associated with human analysis. This is part of the alliance’s efforts to strengthen its collective defense.
NATO is on high alert with AI in kinetic combat.
Although propaganda has always been used in times of war, disinformation campaigns and malware have emerged as crucial instruments for soft-war operations that can be extensively used with artificial intelligence. This makes countering AI-augmented soft-war tactics extremely difficult.
The application of AI to enhance malicious influence operations in times of calm or crisis preparation is what worries me more, according to Montgomery. “Compared to the United States and its democratic friends, Russia and China have both shown a far greater readiness to operate in the gray area. Therefore, the effects of Chinese and Russian AI-enhanced hostile influence activities may be quite detrimental.
The United States and its European allies have long disputed whether or not to rely on Chinese systems, but many in Europe have severed their connections with Chinese digital infrastructure corporations due to Beijing’s ties with Moscow.
The conflict in Ukraine has brought attention to the necessity for NATO to protect its allies and members from the risks presented by artificial intelligence (AI), especially non-NATO nations in the Indo-Pacific and Europe.
China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran are part of an authoritarian coalition that NATO must contend with, Montgomery stated. These four countries have not only positioned themselves against the West but have also contributed to it by providing Moscow with financial and military support for its war in Ukraine.
In his opinion, the struggle against all four of these authoritarian regimes is being led by Ukraine. He also said NATO had to come forward to support it.
