AI In Military

In the past decades, people have been investigating artificial intelligence (AI) in military applications. The term artificial intelligence is commonly defined as a computer programme which executes tasks that require human intelligence (Oxford Dictionary, n.d., Artificial Intelligence). During the World War Two (WWII), Alan Turing invented a computational machine which deciphered Germany’s wartime code machine, Enigma (Marcus 2003). This can be seen as the earliest AI military applications in human history. Nowadays, researchers continue to study how smart a machine or software can become. In recent years, there are several developments of AI in various aspects of military. However, there is an endless debate about whether we should use AI

Lots of money are needed for researches and trials of the AI technology, and military needs large amount of funding to operate and maintain AI machines. For instance, the U.S military spent 23.9 billion dollars barely on UVA and unmanned systems. Furthermore, statistics has shown that the total spending on applications of AI in U.S military increased by 110 percent from 2001 to 2012. Just under 80 percent of the total US national defense spending was used on the AI applications in military (Marshall&Amy, 2013). Some argue that it is worthy and suitable for nations to provide such large amount of funding on military. It is not wise to continue to spend so much money on military while there are many other pressing issues such as poverty, deforestation and illness waiting to be solved. However, some people feel that the funding on AI applications in military is worthy and beneficial not only to armies but also to the general public. Some of today’s common electronics, medicines and transportations such as computers, penicillin and airplanes were discovered or developed in military in the earlier years. These developments and discoveries are beneficial to the general public in various areas. For example, computers allow work to be done more efficiently; discovery of a new treatment can save lives and advancements in transportation can connect the world better. Thus, the applications of AI in military is good. Although for now it requires large amount of money, in the long term it is likely to benefit the society and it stimulates the development and application of technology in people’s daily