What have we been witnessing since the beginning of the war in Iran? What role does AI play from a military point of view? How much space have tech giants taken in defense? Is Europe just standing by?… Hugo Micheron, a professor at Sciences Po Paris, an Arabist, specialist in the Middle East, jihadism, and AI, is a guest on Anne Rosencher’s Grand Interviews. The full exchange can be watched on YouTube and Dailymotion, or listened to on traditional podcast platforms like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Deezer, Castbox, or Podcast Addict.
Anne Rosencher: In twenty-four hours, on February 28, 1,000 targets were hit in Iran by the United States and Israel. US Central Command chief Brad Cooper said about this outcome that “advanced AI tools have transformed processes that used to take days into seconds.” What is AI doing in this war that humans weren’t doing before?
Hugo Micheron : The first direct effect of AI on conflicts is what we call “scaling up”: doing a lot more with a lot less. Thousands of decisions are made in seconds, in a way that is impossible for even the most sharp human brain due to obvious cognitive tension. Another use case, in the same war, is the episode that led to the elimination of Khamenei. We have a historical comparison point in this matter: the hunt for Bin Laden, which lasted ten years, and in which technology played a rather minor role, with the emphasis being on human intelligence. For Khamenei – even if the circumstances were different – there is an obvious time compression, with an on-the-ground operation where technology played a central role.
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