Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technology

Artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies are reshaping how the United States competes, defends itself, and sets policy on the world stage. Governments and militaries around the globe are racing to develop and control these tools, and the choices Washington makes about them ripple into diplomacy, defense spending, and everyday civil liberties.

Military adoption is one of the clearest places this shows up. The Department of Defense is working to weave AI into everything from logistics to targeting, a shift explored in The Pentagon’s Effort to Balance AI Power and Principles, and reflected in the push to connect sensors and weapons systems across every branch of the armed forces, described in The Pentagon’s Gamble: How JADC2 Aims to Revolutionize Modern Warfare.

Supply chains and hardware matter just as much as software. Advanced computing depends on a small number of manufacturers for the chips that power modern AI, which is why national security officials pay such close attention to who makes them and who can buy them, a dynamic covered in Why the National Security Council Focuses on Microchips.

Domestic effects of these same technologies raise separate questions about privacy and civil liberties, since tools built for security purposes often find their way into everyday policing and commerce, a tension examined in Facial Recognition Technology: How It Works, Where It’s Used, and What It Means for Privacy. Space, too, has become an arena where emerging technology and national strategy intersect, as traced in U.S. Space Policy: From Cold War Competition to Commercial Partnership.