Role of algorithmic warfare is a 'game-changer' on the battlefield
A new type of warfare has been described by an expert as a "game-changer" on the battlefield.
Algorithmic warfare is the combination of artificially intelligent means with military capabilities.
It can operate without human intervention or intelligence, and the applications on the battlefield have already been seen in Ukraine.
Algorithmic warfare can only be enabled by working systems that are capable of learning on their own from scenarios in a battlefield environment and will then provide a useful insight with little to no guidance from its operators.
These are also referred to as 'learning computers'.
Nicholas Drummond, a defence industry analyst and former Army officer, described this revolutionary technology as turning the battlefield into a game of hide and seek.
"(Algorithmic warfare) is analysing open-source data to target enemy forces," he said.
"There is a new company playing in this space called Palantir, which is a Silicon Valley company.
"They are, sort of, the military equivalent to Microsoft, and they are using advanced algorithms to track and analyse open-source data that reveals the disposition of enemy forces on the ground.
"So, they're tracking mobile phone usage and all kinds of other search engine usage and then using this data, not only to work out where the enemy are, and to pass that information as targeting data to the Ukrainians, but also, surprisingly, to work out enemy intentions.
"So for instance, when you use Facebook, Facebook knows before you do when you're going to get divorced based on what you do.
"Someone contemplating divorce will get served with legal advice and this can be quite disconcerting; how does Facebook know this? What it's doing is comparing your usage of the platform to other people's usage."
Mr Drummond added: "In a military context, we are looking at what commanders are doing, who they are and what their phone numbers are, which we can do quite easily, we can then begin to analyse intent.
"And that is hugely powerful, especially when you have artificial intelligence and machine learning systems applied to the analytics of this data."
Mr Drummond describes this as a "real game-changer".
"It means warfare has become a very complex game of finding and hiding, and your electronic signature and the management of that signature has become paramount.
"That is something we're already cognisant of in the UK. Russian army discipline in the use of mobile phones, for example, has been very weak.
"The attack the other day (New Year's Day) was easily achievable as they just saw a mass of mobile phones in one area. They could see they were owned by Russians, so you could see it was a concentration of troops."
On New Year's Day, a reported 89 Russian soldiers were killed by a Ukrainian missile strike after their mobile phones were tracked to a building being used as a barracks in the Donetsk area.
"It plays into the narrative that Russia has not been professional in the way it has conducted this operation."
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