Is Artificial Intelligence (AI) Changing the
Nature of War?
Maj Gen P K Mallick, VSM (Retd), Consultant, VIF
Maj Gen P K Mallick, VSM (Retd), Consultant, VIF [2]
January 18 , 2019
Introduction
The professional military body differentiates between an objective nature and a subjective
character of war by drawing upon Clausewitz. Nature of war describes what war is and character
of war describes how it is actually fought. Nature of war is violent, interactive between opposing
wills and fundamentally political. War’s character is influenced by technology, law, ethics, culture,
methods of social, political, and military organization and other factors that change across time
and place. Character of warfare changes in concert with the tools that become available and how
they influence the ways militaries organize themselves to fight wars.
In his book On War, Carl von Clausewitz highlighted how failing to understand the character of
war leads to disaster. He chastised Prussian generals for using the old tactics of Frederick the
Great against a Napoleonic army waging a new type of warfare. They had not appreciated the
changes in how war was being fought or in the character of war. Future development and
deployment of human-machine teams and autonomous weapons systems represents such a shift
in the character of war.
1
In near future we will see significant advances in autonomy and machine learning, to include the
emergence of robots working together in groups and as swarms. New and powerful robotic
systems will be used to perform complex actions, make autonomous decisions, deliver lethal
force, provide intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, coverage and speed response
times over wider areas of the globe. Military organizations must plan now for this new era of
warfare. Governments must be prepared for the political, strategic and ethical dimensions of this
shift in the character of war.
2
Major technological breakthroughs that could occur in robotics as well as information, cognitive,
and material sciences are, by themselves, truly revolutionary. Military applications of Artificial
Intelligence (AI) have the potential to change the very nature of war. At the strategic level, this
could affect how the armed forces organize ground forces, how it fights and what types of major
weapon systems it will need. At the operational and tactical levels, enemy’s AI capabilities could
