AI prevents info overload and surprise attacks.

It is also possible, however, that autonomous systems could help countries buy time in ways that make nuclear escalation less likely. The United States and its competitors already deploy expansive sensor networks, stretching from outer space to cyberspace. But the amount of data produced by these sensing arrays threatens to overwhelm human operators today. The emergence of highly-automated data processors could change that, allowing national decision-makers to make far better sense of the cluttered battlespace. In fact, the first use of “AI” technology at the U.S. Department of Defense was for automated information processing to help monitor full-motion video drone feeds through Project Maven.131 Greater awareness and understanding of an adversary’s actions could reduce the risk of miscalculation. Leaders would be able to replace uncertainty – and a fear of the worst – with near real-time information on an adversary’s forces. Greater visibility could reassure leaders that a surprise attack was not underway, and the knowledge of this visibility would reduce incentives for a surprise attack. More advanced automation and autonomous systems could also help to improve the security, efficiency, and resiliency of military communications and command-and-control systems, which are subject to increased disruption in the cyber, electromagnetic, and physical domains. This greater resilience could reduce the vulnerability of nuclear communications and command-and-control systems to disruption.