Referring to the Foreign Affairs periodical, the US is lagging behind Russia and China in terms of military artificial intelligence.
Earlier, the US armed forces used to be at the forefront of AI technologies. However, Pentagon is ceding its superiority to its bitter rivals, Russia and China, the periodical underscores. The US Department of Defense was taking the lead in the field of AI development that took warfare technologies to a whole new level.
At present, despite geopolitical jitters, Pentagon is unwilling to apply its expertise to the ongoing challenge in East Europe, for example. Most American projects on the AI application have ended up in failure.
One of such failed ventures is the US Air Force project on designing X-45 and X-47 pilotless aircraft. Such drones are meant for conducting reconnaissance as well as launching missile and bomb strikes. The project dates back to 2003. However, the Air Force dropped out of the project because Pentagon viewed the drones as a threat to the F-35 fighter program. The US Navy also funded another large-scale project to develop X-47B, but it was terminated for the same reason.
Experts at Foreign Affairs suppose that US armed forces rested on their laurels for too long, so the US might slip into the ranks of laggards. Analysts think that the lack of progress in US AI projects makes a striking contrast to the successful military research of its geopolitical rivals.
If Pentagon does not integrate AI technologies into its combat strategies and weapons, Russia and China will take advantage of this weakness. Both countries are actively employing AI technologies in their armed forces. Their success could jeopardize the US military power.
