Will Israel Fight Its Future Wars with Robots?

Israeli Defense Ministry Director General Eyal Zamir revealed on Monday that Israel aims to leverage its technological prowess to become a "superpower" in artificial intelligence, anticipating advancements in autonomous warfare and smoother decision-making processes during combat. The retired general noted that steps to capitalize on rapid developments in artificial intelligence include establishing a dedicated organization for military robotics within the ministry and allocating a significantly large budget for related research and development this year. Speaking at the Herzliya Conference, an annual international security forum, he stated: "Some see artificial intelligence as the next revolution in changing the face of war on the battlefield." He pointed to GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformers) and AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) as areas of deep learning addressed by civilian artificial intelligence industries that may eventually have military applications. Zamir indicated that these areas might include "the ability of platforms to attack in swarms, or the capability of combat systems to operate independently in data integration and assist in rapid decision-making, on a scale we have never seen before." The ministry declined to provide statistics on artificial intelligence funding.