AI in Contemporary Warfare: A Look Into the Future of

Hostilities
Artificial intelligence (AI) is being applied to combat at a very rapid speed these days. It may be used in
military systems and strategic decision-making. Initiating propaganda and deception, which have always
been essential components of combat, is another key use for it. This may give Clausewitz's theory of war
a new dimension. It is possible to establish AI-regulated "principles of war" that confuse opponents.

For instance, confusion regarding circumstances and occurrences during a conflict makes up the fog of
war. An AI-depicted physical and psychological environment may exacerbate this scenario, giving the
opposition's ground commanders a basic or sophisticated understanding. By utilizing AI technology,
military strategists can manipulate the fog of war to their advantage by creating realistic simulations and
false information. This can further enhance the confusion and disorientation experienced by the enemy,
ultimately giving the AI-regulated forces a significant edge in combat.

AI in the Civil War in Sudan:

In the midst of Sudan's civil strife, an AI-powered voice-cloning technique just surfaced. It was used to
pose as Sudan's former president, Omar al-Bashir. This gained a lot of popularity on social media. Leaked
recordings were shared by anonymous accounts to disseminate the word. The recordings that were
uploaded to the "Voice of Sudan" channel seemed to be a mash-up of voice messages, news stories, and
vintage press conferences from previous coup attempts. These were credited to the previous
administration.

It appeared from the duplicated discussion that Omar al-Bashir had been a strong opponent of the
Sudanese military before the coup. As a result, the public's opinion of his backing changed. Conventional
players are no longer necessary for the development of an AI-modulated fog of war. These days, even a
person with mediocre technical knowledge may employ such strategies to sway military or public opinion
and hence cause the desired uncertainty.

AI and the War in Russia and Ukraine:

Artificial intelligence has advanced throughout the conflict in Ukraine, particularly in the area of target
and object detection using satellite photography. Using AI technologies, the open-source data is processed
to identify the locations of military movements, where weapons are placed, and how many people each
army has lost. In order to help them with data analysis and decision-making during the continuing
combat, the Russian Ministry of Defense is also looking to artificial intelligence companies. In the
conflict in Ukraine, drones have also been extensively used to attack tanks and other military targets.

The Fire Factory in Israel:

Artificial intelligence initiatives have also influenced the latest conflict between Israel and Hamas in the
Gaza Strip. The Israeli military marked out key areas for drone bombardment using AI-backed technology
while the Hamas-Israel war was intensifying. Drone-borne explosives were also employed by Hamas to
demolish Israel's surveillance stations along the Gaza border. The Israeli Defense Forces have employed
an AI system known as "Fire Factory" to identify targets and launch bombs along with a swift ground
attack in retaliation. Fire Factory "calculates munitions loads, prioritizes and assigns thousands of targets
to aircraft and drones, and proposes a schedule using data about military-approved targets."

The Course of War in the Future:

In the upcoming years, AI-driven technologies will proliferate on the battlefield due to this push and
reliance on technology. Drones will be utilized for intelligence, computation, and detection. With the
active assistance of the ground forces, a wide range of military operations may be initiated based on such
intelligence. This might lead to the precise computation of military force based on the components of the
fog of war measurement.

Every soldier in a detachment may have a GPS device implanted so that drones can track their
movements. Drones may readily target and destroy military sites if they are programmed with their
locations. In the not-too-distant future, the idea of an AI-modulated trinity of battles could come to pass.
The AI is able to compile people's goals based on data gathered from various social media sites. With
little to no fog of war, the military commanders on the ground receive accurate images of what is
happening in front of them, or vice versa.

Additionally, AI-based choices are provided to the government for every scenario, assisting it in selecting
between reality-based and public-centric methods. Furthermore, AI may be easily used to sway public
opinion in support of or against a cause, especially in times of conflict. This provides military strategists
and decision-makers with a variety of possibilities. There could be a day in the future when AI is widely
employed. In a conflict, every possibility or chance may become a certainty.

A military force might demonstrate to its opponent that it is aware of the latter's precise capabilities,
preventing the latter from putting up any resistance. The opponent would thus have no choice but to
submit as a result of this. This might give the adage "victory without war" a new meaning.

Authors Bio: Khadija Asif is an M.Phil. student at Punjab University, Lahore. She is interested
in artificial intelligence, non-traditional threats like climate change and International Affairs and
power dynamics.