It’s not all about AI and software. You need hardware compact enough — and secure enough — to deploy into a war zone.

Severe instability in the national security establishment raises questions not about the president’s policy judgements, but about the government’s ability to plan for and implement those decisions.

The Pentagon insists it doesn’t want them. But could a global ban really rein in Russia or China?

Warships sink. Bases burn. F-35s die on the runway. Can $24 billion a year — 3.3 % of the Pentagon budget — fix the problem?

“The SOF guys are less risk averse than conventional ground forces, so they’re more apt to push the limit,” said Bob Work, father of the AI-driven Third Offset Strategy. “Their commanders also have embraced AI and autonomous ops…. so I think all the conditions are set for SOF to lead the way in the more direct combat applications of AI and autonomy.”

The Pentagon and, increasingly, Congress have grown frustrated with tech giants who shy away from US government work while flocking to Beijing to tap a massive — but authoritarian — market.

Don’t think about the Terminator or Iron Man: Think about Sigourney Weaver’s power loader lifting crates in Aliens.

“The major challenge for the US is China,” CNA analyst Larry Lewis said. “They are approaching the use of AI just like the US approached going to the moon in the sixties.”

WASHINGTON: China is besting the United States in key military technologies like hypersonic missiles and electronic warfare, Gen. Paul Selva, vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs said today. We can still catch up, he predicted. What about Artificial Intelligence? That’s too close to call, said former deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work, so we’d better get a move on. Both men… Keep reading →

“Error is as important as malevolence,” Richard Danzig told me in an interview. “I probably wouldn’t use the word ‘stupidity,’ (because) the people who make these mistakes are frequently quite smart, (but) it’s so complex and the technologies are so opaque that there’s a limit to our understanding.”