On this month’s podcast, Ariel spoke with Paul Scharre and Mike Horowitz from the Center for a New American Security about the role of automation in the nuclear sphere, and how the proliferation of AI technologies could change nuclear posturing and the effectiveness of deterrence. Paul is a former Pentagon policy official, and the author of Army of None: Autonomous Weapons in the Future of War. Mike Horowitz is professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania, and the author of The Diffusion of Military Power: Causes and Consequences for International Politics.

Topics discussed in this episode include:

The sophisticated military robots developed by Soviets during the Cold War

How technology shapes human decision-making in war

“Automation bias” and why having a “human in the loop” is much trickier than it sounds

The United States’ stance on automation with nuclear weapons

Why weaker countries might have more incentive to build AI into warfare

How the US and Russia perceive first-strike capabilities

“Deep fakes” and other ways AI could sow instability and provoke crisis

The multipolar nuclear world of US, Russia, China, India, Pakistan, and North Korea

The perceived obstacles to reducing nuclear arsenals