Intelligence artificielle : vers une nouvelle révolution militaire ?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a priority defense issue for the military powers of the 21st century. Unsurprisingly, the United States and China are currently at the forefront of this new digitalized arms race.
As AI aims to emulate cognitive processes with algorithms and automated processing of big data, it is capable to undertake a growing number of specific tasks in which it surpasses human performances. In the military field, it enables a better management and simulation of the operational environment, provide threats detection, process and simplify large quantities of collected intelligence and to deliver an elementary analysis. In this light, military AI perpetuates the Revolution in Military Affairs that began in the 1990s and now appears as the main path to achieving tactical superiority. As autonomy is progressively becoming a new strategic staple, proponents of a “military humanism” underline the limits of technology, the wide span of potential counter-measures as well as the risk of a loss of control, or a dehumanization of war leading to reconsider the warrior ethos. If these evolutions prompt for a new balance in man-machine teaming, the longer term prospect of the advent of a “strong AI”, one that would be truly autonomous, could transform even more the political-military relationship, and even alter the very nature of the war.
This content is available in French: Intelligence artificielle : vers une nouvelle révolution militaire ?
Author(s)
Jean-Christophe NOËL
Associate Research Fellow, Security Studies Center, Ifri
Related centers and programs
Discover our other research centers and programs
Security Studies Center
Heir to a tradition dating back to the founding of Ifri, the Security Studies Center provides public and private decision-makers as well as the general public with the keys to understanding power relations and contemporary modes of conflict as well as those to come. Through its positioning at the juncture of politics and operations, the credibility of its civil-military team and the wide distribution of its publications in French and English, the Center for Security Studies constitutes in the French landscape of think tanks a unique center of research and influence on the national and international defense debate.
Find out more
Discover all our analyses
Return to the East: the Russian Threat and the French Pivot to Europe's Eastern Flank
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, has flung Europe’s Eastern flank into a new phase of strategic confrontation. It has had a major effect on France’s position, which was previously somewhat timid, leading it to significantly reinforce its deterrence and defense posture in support of the collective defense of Europe, in the name of strategic solidarity and the protection of its security interests.
Military Stockpiles: A Life-Insurance Policy in a High-Intensity Conflict?
The war in Ukraine is a reminder of the place of attrition from high-intensity conflict in European armies that have been cut to the bone after three decades of budget cuts. All European forces have had to reduce their stocks to the bare minimum. As a result, support to Ukraine has meant a significant drain on their operational capabilities. A significant amount of decommissioned systems were also donated, due to the lack of depth in operational fleets.
France’s Place Within NATO: Toward a Strategic Aggiornamento?
With a rapidly deteriorating security environment, a chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, internal disputes exploding into public view, and questions being raised about the scope of its security responsibilities, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) seemed to be in dire straits at the time of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
Towards a European Nuclear Deterrent
While major European powers may have to contemplate nuclear deterrence without America, the national flexibility and European financial support required to make it feasible is currently difficult to imagine.