Stop Saying "AI"

TL;DR

This paper contends that 'AI' is a broad, enabling technology, not a single discrete system, and therefore debates should specify the exact systems and contexts under discussion. It provides a loose taxonomy of military AI across decision support, autonomous engagement, operations, and bureaucracy, then analyzes the distinct ethical, legal, and operational risks for each category. Through concrete examples (ISR platforms, Lavender, Titan, CCAs, swarms, maintenance, refueling, wargaming, and policy tools) it demonstrates how system-specific challenges—such as bias, brittleness, accountability, and security—vary with deployment. The authors argue that precise terminology and context-aware governance are required to improve debate quality and policy outcomes across domains where AI is increasingly deployed.

Abstract

Across academia, industry, and government, ``AI'' has become central in research and development, regulatory debates, and promises of ever faster and more capable decision-making and action. In numerous domains, especially safety-critical ones, there are significant concerns over how ``AI'' may affect decision-making, responsibility, or the likelihood of mistakes (to name only a few categories of critique). However, for most critiques, the target is generally ``AI'', a broad term admitting many (types of) systems used for a variety of tasks and each coming with its own set of limitations, challenges, and potential use cases. In this article, we focus on the military domain as a case study and present both a loose enumerative taxonomy of systems captured under the umbrella term ``military AI'', as well as discussion of the challenges of each. In doing so, we highlight that critiques of one (type of) system will not always transfer to other (types of) systems. Building on this, we argue that in order for debates to move forward fruitfully, it is imperative that the discussions be made more precise and that ``AI'' be excised from debates to the extent possible. Researchers, developers, and policy-makers should make clear exactly what systems they have in mind and what possible benefits and risks attend the deployment of those particular systems. While we focus on AI in the military as an exemplar for the overall trends in discussions of ``AI'', the argument's conclusions are broad and have import for discussions of AI across a host of domains.