Army Explores Future of AI in Warfare

Joseph Welch, executive director of US Army Transformation and Training Command, said that AI can help soldiers do their jobs better and help them make 'human based judgments consistent with our laws and our values' when they're out in the field. Welch said that the Army's goal is to rapidly advance the state of their technology and that he's seeing support for 'once in a generation change.'

nthropic’s Chief Executive Officer Dario Amodei compared artificial intelligence chips to nuclear weapons. Google DeepMind’s CEO said China’s technology is just months behind the US. Signal’s Meredith Whittaker called new adaptations of AI uniquely “perilous.”

The message from tech executives at the World Economic Forum is that AI is a powerful geopolitical force, and one politicians and business leaders need to wield as such. It’s effectively one more piece of firepower in the global struggle between major economies like the US and China.

The idea that AI is more than just a buzzy next-gen tech, but a crucial tool for whomever wants to be a 21st century superpower, means it’s high on the agenda at Davos. It’s holding its own in the attention stakes, even if the buildup to the annual gathering of the world’s global elite has been dominated by Donald Trump and tensions over Greenland.

In a sign of the AI push at Davos, Anthropic and tech venture capital investors Lightspeed and General Catalyst planned exclusive parties. Even with a busy schedule ahead for the week, there was a line outside the VC event at 10:30pm. Palantir Technologies Inc. set up its house across the street from the USA House, a church just outside the Davos perimeter that’s the main venue for the Trump administration this week.

AI is becoming a major driver of the global economy — with companies and nations committing billions to ensure dominance — and has implications for everything to the future of work and robotics to how wars are fought and space travel.

With so much at stake, countries can’t afford to slow down when it comes to investment and innovation. And, according to Amodei, the US even risks giving up its edge over China by selling advanced AI chips to its rival.

“If you think about the incredible national security implications of building models that are essentially cognition, that are essentially intelligence,” Amodei said. “It’s like selling nuclear weapons to North Korea.”

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