[War & Business] AI: The Dominator of the Battlefield...Is the Terminator Becoming Reality?

Israel’s Target Generation AI ‘Habsora’ in Action
Proliferation of AI Weapons Including Unmanned Vehicles and Collaborative Drones
AI Now Manages Nuclear Arms... Nations Struggle to Respond

On the 6th (local time), smoke rose over the Beirut area in Lebanon due to an airstrike by the Israeli military. The Israeli military stated that they used the target generation artificial intelligence (AI) called 'Habsora' in the airstrike on Lebanon.
[Image source=Reuters·Yonhap News]

Following the death of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli airstrike, Hashim Safieddine, who was considered his likely successor, is also presumed to have been killed in an explosion. As the Israeli military's targeted assassination technology has become highly sophisticated, even Hezbollah, specialized in guerrilla warfare, is struggling. Hezbollah has suffered significant damage not only to its key executives but also to its military bases within Lebanon, raising concerns about the potential collapse of the organization due to this conflict.

The Israeli military praised the unprecedented success of its targeted assassination operation, attributing it to the cutting-edge target generation artificial intelligence (AI) called 'Habsora.' Meaning 'gospel' or 'divine revelation' in Korean, Habsora is a target generation AI secretly developed by the Israeli military. It contains profile data on tens of thousands of key figures from terrorist and anti-Israel groups in the Middle East.

Based on a massive database, Habsora delivers real-time target information to various military units by tracking enemy movements through intelligence satellites and surveillance cameras in operational areas. The precise AI location tracking information is credited as the foundation that made it possible to bomb the Hezbollah leader, despite multiple previous assassination attempts that had failed.

In addition to target generation AI like Habsora, advanced militaries are increasingly developing and adopting various AI weapons. At the international defense industry exhibition (KADEX) held from the 2nd to the 6th at Gyeryongdae in Chungnam, new AI weapons such as Hyundai Rotem's unmanned combat vehicle HR-SHERPA and Korean Air's unmanned cooperative combat aircraft KUS-RP were prominently featured.

While there have been radio-controlled tanks and aircraft requiring separate pilots, the trend now is toward 'autonomous weapon systems' that operate independently, making decisions on their own rather than being directly controlled by humans. Weapons like tanks and aircraft are evolving from mere tools responding to simple commands into comrades fighting alongside soldiers on the battlefield.

The advancement of AI-based autonomous weapon systems is positive in terms of reducing soldiers' casualties and increasing survival rates on the battlefield. However, concerns are growing that the indiscriminate emergence of AI weapons could potentially lead to the commercialization of killer robots like those seen in the movie 'Terminator.'

Particularly, the development of AI staff programs, expected to be highly utilized in military AI fields, is considered a 'double-edged sword.' While AI can analyze hundreds of thousands of real-time data points on the front lines to issue the most efficient operational commands, focusing solely on efficiency could inadvertently cause large-scale loss of life.

Among nuclear-armed powers, there is no ruling out the possibility of accidental nuclear war in future militaries where AI exercises command and control authority. The reason the U.S. and Chinese delegations held talks on military AI in Geneva, Switzerland, last May was the shared understanding that excessive arms competition and AI weapon development carry the risk of mutual destruction. This is an issue that not only nuclear powers but also South Korea, which possesses world-class technology in AI weapons, must seriously consider.