Arms and Artificial Intelligence

The impact of information technology in the field of military decision making is superficially less visible than that of a number of other weapon developments, though its importance has grown steadily since the beginning of the 1980s. Owing to its potential role in modern weapon systems and the prospect of its inclusion as an essential ingredient in many military projects such as the Strategic Defence Initiative, it has become the focus of special interest and efforts. This book is the first attempt to present a broad overview of the prospects for information technology in general, and machine intelligence in particular, in the context of international security. The dangers and promises of weapon and arms control applications of computers and artificial intelligence to decision-making processes are analysed in a technical, strategic, and political perspective by experts from six different countries. In an introductory chapter, Allan Din presents a generic overview of artificial intelligence and its prospects. Thirteen contributors then discuss the conceptual and technical framework of artificial intelligence, analyse implications for weapon systems and strategy, and discuss possible applications to arms control verification and modelling.