IWP 737
4 Credits
This course is an introduction to the rapid advances in artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies, their current applications to enhance U.S. national security, and the many challenges to managing responsibly their impact on a democratic society. It does not require that students have a technical background, but it assumes students have a basic understanding of the cyber domain.
Throughout the course, students will examine important case studies that demonstrate both the beneficial and dangerous applications of AI, the nature and impact of global competition for AI dominance, and efforts to manage or regulate the use of advanced technologies that some have called the new “cool war.”
Students will examine several important aspects of AI and national security, to include:
- AI policies, strategies, and doctrine;
- Adoption of AI and other advanced technologies in the military, intelligence, diplomatic, and economic domains;
- Case studies of AI operations and their unique tactics, techniques, and procedures;
- Human oversight (command and control) of AI use;
- Their ability to exploit advanced technologies for intelligence analysis and operations;
- The ability of AI to enhance defense and resilience; and,
- AI offensive capabilities and operations.
Students will participate in a class-wide, semester-long exercise intended to test one’s skills as a 21st-century strategist who must manage AI “crises” when they emerge and shape them to one’s advantage—the cornerstone of mastering statecraft.
The course will be taught in a combined lecture-demonstration-seminar format. Students will be expected to complete all assigned readings before each class and be prepared to discuss them during the seminar portion—especially with guest speakers. Students will be encouraged to venture beyond these readings and to pursue research topics of interest to them (in consultation with the professor) as they prepare their writing assignments.