Russia is increasingly looking towards artificial intelligence According to experts, (AI) should take this step to overcome the shortcomings in its combat capabilities and capacity exposed by the invasion of Ukraine.
“Russian futurists, Russian technologists, Russian developers are envisioning this slow evolution away from extensive human involvement, toward a point where human involvement is as minimal as possible,” Samuel Bendett, adjunct senior fellow in the technology and national security program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), told Fox News Digital.
“Some of these statements were made before Russia’s disastrous invasion of Ukraine and Russia’s conduct in this war, which required a lot of manpower… but this is something that the Russian military has kept an eye on,” he said.
Bendet has his Paper for CNAS argued that Russia’s eagerness to adopt AI could lead the country to take more risks to catch up with the West. They relied on analysis of public statements, announcements, and Russian-language media to develop their paper, which looks at major developments in the robotics and AI space and how Russia seeks an “intelligent” military that makes semi-automated decisions.
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“Such sources provide a glimpse into Russian deliberations and debates on the role and utility of AI on the modern battlefield and help analysts understand what Russia emphasizes in terms of AI research and development,” Bendett wrote.
The biggest concern Western officials have regarding Russia’s use of artificial intelligence (AI) is the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) systems with its nuclear command, which Bendett argues is at the top of Russia’s goal list.
Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech during the Victory Day military parade celebrating victory over Nazi Germany on Red Square in Moscow on May 9, 2023. (Gavriil Grigorov/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images)
While the main, immediate goal for Russia is to use AI for data collection, analysis, and “situational awareness,” military forces eventually want to integrate AI into decision-making, including when and how to deploy nuclear weapons.
“Repeated statements by officials in the Defense Department and the government indicate that AI is a data analysis and decision-making tool,” Bendett said. “So, nuclear forces are going to be part of that larger effort to integrate some of these more advanced technologies alongside the analysis and understanding done by human operators.”
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In his paper, Bendett elaborated on this point, saying that AI would allegedly help Russian authorities “in the event that the political leadership becomes incapacitated and can no longer make critical decisions.” The system, called Perimeter, is an automated nuclear weapons control system from the Cold War era that was included in the country’s nuclear weapons doctrine. mutually assured destruction Russia detonated a nuclear bomb under the Advanced Development Goal (MAD) in the 1980s, but the system remains in operation today, which Bendett said was a sign of Russia’s thinking.
“This system continues to exist today,” Bendett writes, “which means that semi-automated systems are preferred over fully automated ones to meet the challenges of extreme stress, pressure to understand a scenario unfolding in real time, possible lack of relevant information, and emotions that affect stressed human decision makers.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech in Moscow to mark the 79th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. (Tian Bing/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images)
“By removing the pressure on Russian leaders to decide whether Nuclear launch attack “For short-term decision-making under pressure, ‘Perimeter’ aims to minimise the risk of miscalculation on both sides and avoid wrong decisions with huge consequences,” he said.
One of the primary concerns they raise is that although Russia’s views on AI are in line with those of other major powers, it may lack the capacity to adopt those systems, especially in the face of Western sanctions and export controls.
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In his paper, Bendett lists a number of factors that might otherwise hinder Russia’s development and adoption of AI technology, such as the exodus of technical personnel at the start of the Ukraine invasion, lack of access to parts and data, and the affected economy, as major obstacles to Russia’s AI ambitions.
Bendett argued that Russia’s desperation to keep pace with the West could push officials to rely on China. Moscow’s increasingly close allyTo fill the gaps in development.
In this pool photograph distributed by Russian state agency Sputnik, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping are seen holding an informal meeting in Beijing on May 16, 2024. (Mikhail Kostiantyn Liberov/Libkos/Getty Images)
“One of the things we’ve found, even as sanctions go into effect starting in March 2022, is that Russia can evade many of the sanctions and actually obtain what it needs through willing partners or through partners that are unaware of certain transactions,” Bendett explained during an interview with Fox News Digital.
He argued, “This certainly includes microelectronics, certain hardware and software solutions: as long as Russia maintains open trade and relations with countries like China and India and many other countries around the world, it will probably have access to certain technologies, certain concepts that are necessary for its high-tech development and especially artificial intelligence development.”
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rebecca kofflerAI is one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “top priorities,” a strategic military intelligence analyst and author of “Putin’s Playbook,” which includes an annual report on progress in development and implementation, told Fox News Digital.
“Putin once said that the country that controls AI will control the world,” Kofler said. “His concern is that if the West leads in AI, it will have Western values and concepts embedded in it, not Russian values.”
“Putin believes that if Russia loses the competition in AI it will lose its sovereignty,” he said. “Putin once compared AI to nuclear weapons, and he predicts that AI will follow the path of nuclear weapons development – once people realize how big a threat AI is if not properly managed, efforts will be made to control it.”
Koffler claimed Putin indirectly acknowledged the US as a leader in AI development, and pointed to Elon Musk’s Neuralink as proof that billionaire Musk will “do what he thinks needs to be done” to advance the technology.
Both Bendett and Koffler lamented the difficulty of fully assessing Russia’s progress with AI due to a lack of “credible intelligence” and an over-reliance on Russian government statements, which Koffler warned are often “exaggerations.”
