Doctor in political science, Laure de Roucy-Rochegonde directs the Geopolitical Technology Center at the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI) and teaches the ethics of war at Sciences Po Paris and at the University of Paris-II Panthéon-Assas . On Wednesday October 16, she published War in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (PUF, 240 pages, 18 euros), which questions in particular how artificial intelligence (AI) and the appearance of more autonomous weapons can call into question human, political and legal control of the use of force.
Is AI experiencing a jump in the military field similar to that observed in the civilian sector over the past two years?
Yes, completely. The first announcements on the integration of AI into weapon systems date from before 2010. Before the war in Ukraine, in 2022, it was estimated that the most advanced states were the United States, China and, to a lesser extent, Russia. But, at the time of the invasion of Ukraine, Russian military AI was rather conspicuous by its absence. At the beginning, we saw very rustic systems on the ground and the Ukrainians gradually stood out, with the help of major American players, such as the company Palantir, specializing in data processing, or the satellite communications company d ‘Elon Musk, Starlink. There, we really saw an acceleration, a tipping point, because all these players benefited from something very rare until then: operational data on the ground. On the battlefield today, AI rather exceeds the expectations of the military.
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In Ukraine, drones are omnipresent. How has AI changed their use?
Ten years ago, at the time of the invasion of Crimea in 2014, drones had a great vulnerability: when we cut their connection with the operator – which the Russians do very well – they ended up to fall. This is where AI plays a role today, because it allows for autonomous navigation, targeting, readjustment of a trajectory, etc. Drones can now more and more often continue to operate without interrupting their mission.
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There is a lot of research on autonomous flight, in Europe or in the United States, where the American army has carried out tests on fighters. Are we heading towards the end of fighter pilots?
A fighter pilot would say that it is impossible for a drone to be able to do everything alone in a mission. However, drones are increasingly capable of performing missions similar to those of a fighter jet. That said, whenever there is a need for human responsibility for certain missions, States prefer to ensure the presence of a pilot, as a safeguard. The next frontier is swarms of drones, which will operate with collective intelligence, a bit like a school of fish.
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