Description
Since its inception, artificial intelligence (AI) has been conceptualized in anthropomorphic terms, employing biomimicry to digitally map the human brain as analogies to human reasoning. Hybrid teams of human soldiers and autonomous agents controlled by AI are expected to play an increasingly more significant role in future military operations. This article argues that until AI surpasses human intelligence, anthropomorphism will play a critical role in human-machine interactions in tactical operations, which depend on fast, cognitively parsimonious, and efficacious communication. Thus, understanding the various (social and cognitive) psychological mechanisms that undergird AI-anthropomorphism is crucial in determining the potential impact of military human-machine interactions. While the limitations of AI technology in human-machine interaction are well-known, how the spontaneous tendency to anthropomorphize AI agents might affect the psychological (cognitive/behavioral) and motivational aspects of hybrid military operations has garnered far less attention. The article identifies some potential epistemological, normative, and ethical consequences of humanizing algorithms (the use of anthropomorphic language and discourse) for the conduct of war. It also considers the possible impact of the AI-anthropomorphism phenomenon on the inversion of AI anthropomorphism and the dehumanization of war.
