“Artificial Intelligence: A Competitive Advantage for the US Army” Review

The document offers a substantial review of how the implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) may become a crucial competitive advantage for the US military. After briefly describing the current state of things with regards to the military application of AI technologies, it proceeds to list and explain the most feasible and potentially useful implementations of said technologies. Discussion of these potential implementations, including logistics, processing intelligence, medical use, cyber-attacks, and autonomous weapons, is the strongest part of the text. It offers specific examples for each potential implementation, explains in sufficient detail how these may contribute to improving the capabilities of the US Army, and substantiates the claims being made with references to reputable sources. The structured narrative leaves the reader with a clear idea of how the US Army may implement AI technologies and how these will assist in creating the desired competitive advantage over its enemies.

However, the document leaves something to be desired when it comes to covering the likely adversaries of the US Army in the AI field. Admittedly, it lists four countries – China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran – that represent the most significant concerns in this respect with a paragraph assigned for each. Yet these paragraphs do not go beyond the generic claims that said countries develop AI technologies and are likely to use them against the USA. Only the segment about Russia contains something close to an official policy statement – namely, the quote from the country’s President Putin. The document would benefit from more thorough coverage of potential threats, including official policy statements on AI development in all countries and cyber-attacks and other AI-related incidents perpetrated by or attributed to them.