The New Fire: War, Peace, and Democracy in the Age of AI

Authors

John P. Ringquist, U.S. Army Command and Staff College

Abstract

Ιn November 2023, the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence (AI) Officer of the Department of Defense (DOD), Craig Martell, stated, “Technologies evolve. Things are going to change next week, next year, next decade. And what wins today might not win tomorrow.” This sense of rapid technological change and disruption echoes what Ben Buchanan and Andrew Imbrie have written in The New Fire. The authors are deeply steeped in the world of cyber and AI. Buchanan is the former Director of the CyberAI Project at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET), currently Special Advisor for AI at the White House, and the author of The Hacker and the State: Cyber Attacks and the New Normal of Geopolitics (Harvard University Press, 2020). Imbrie is an Associate Professor of Practice in the Gracias Chair in Security and Emerging Technology at Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service, a former fellow at CSET, and the author of Power on the Precipice: The Six Choices America Faces in a Turbulent World (Yale University Press, 2020). The authors bring their considerable experience to bear across 10 thematically arranged chapters in The New Fire as they examine the risks and opportunities of AI and the implications of abusing the AI “fire” in programs that claim to not only protect society but also empower autonomous systems to act against humans. It is a risk that could quickly grow out of control, especially in autocratic states.

Recommended Citation

John P. Ringquist, "The New Fire: War, Peace, and Democracy in the Age of AI," Joint Force Quarterly 114 (3rd Quarter 2024), 114-115, https://digitalcommons.ndu.edu/joint-force-quarterly/vol114/iss2/21.