Confronting the Barriers to AI Diffusion in the US Military

AI-enabled command-and-control systems and low-cost, semi-autonomous drones are reshaping battlefields in Ukraine and the Middle East, while China is marshalling its techno-industrial base in an attempt to establish itself as a world-class military power. In the United States, the White House wants to “aggressively adopt” AI throughout the US military, and the Pentagon has directed the Department of Defense (DoD) to become an “AI-first” warfighting force. Whether the United States can maintain its military edge may depend on how fast it builds, adopts, and fields emerging technologies. But while AI is playing a growing role in decision support and intelligence analysis, wider and deeper diffusion could prove more challenging, especially in physical autonomous systems.

This paper categorizes and assesses the range of barriers that will slow the US military’s AI transformation, using autonomous drones as a case study. Drawing on the author’s experience as an Army aviation officer, as well as interviews with experts in the DoD, Ukrainian armed forces, defense tech industry, and academia, it provides real-world examples of the types of adoption barriers that AI is likely to face and discusses what the US government should do about them.