What might change with the current AI renaissance, which is seeing breakthroughs in the areas of machine learning and autonomous systems? Recent advances in AI could be leveraged in all aspects of the nuclear enterprise. However, this system, known as the Dead Hand, was meant to be activated only in the exceptional case of a decapitating attack on the Soviet nuclear command and control. The Soviet Union is the only country that pursued the development of a fully-automated command and control systems for nuclear weapons. Given the dramatic consequences that a system failure would have, they were reluctant to hand over higher-order assessments and launch decisions to AI systems. Early application of AI included automating threat detection, logistical planning for the transmission of launch orders, and missile targeting and guidance.Įarly on, nuclear-armed states not only identified the appeal of AI for nuclear deterrence, they also saw its limitations. They pursued the development of AI systems that could make their command and control process more agile and give decision-makers more time to focus on what really mattered: deciding whether to launch a nuclear strike or not. As early as in the 1960s, the United States and the Soviet Union saw that the nascent field of AI could play a role in the development and maintenance of their retaliatory capability – that is, the capability to respond to a nuclear attack, even by surprise. In fact, AI has been part of the nuclear deterrence architecture for decades. The connection between AI and nuclear weaponry is not new. This convergence of AI and nuclear weapons deserves greater scrutiny.ĪI and nuclear weapons: an old connection AI could even be a driver of great ‘entanglement’ between the two areas. The transformative potential of AI, however, is also relevant for nuclear weapons and doctrines. As its name suggests, the CCW focuses on conventional weapons, so it has a major blind spot on issues related to nuclear weapons and strategic stability. In the past few years, much of this dialogue has revolved around the debate on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS, aka killer robots), which currently takes place within the framework of the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW). The conversation on how AI could impact warfare is still very young.
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