War by Algorithm: How AI Is Remaking Defense and Testing Our Morals

Nations rush to weaponize AI, from Turkey’s drones to Silicon Valley’s Pentagon ties.

On a recent morning in northwestern Turkey, a jet-black drone catapulted off its runway with no human at the controls. The new Bayraktar TB2T-AI – a turbocharged unmanned aircraft bristling with artificial intelligence – climbed to 30,000 feet in under half an hour, on its own. Once aloft, it autonomously tracked targets, planned its flight path, and even landed without guidance, relying on AI “vision” to find the runway. (Defence Industry Europe, 2025), This isn’t science fiction or some distant prototype. It’s the bleeding edge of military technology, and it’s here now. Around the globe, defense strategists are heralding an age of “war by algorithm.” (Defence Industry Europe, 2025)As Russian President Vladimir Putin famously put it back in 2017, “whoever reaches a breakthrough in developing artificial intelligence will come to dominate the world” (AP, 2017). His blunt warning was less a prediction than a doctrine – one now seemingly shared by Washington, Beijing, and beyond.

In 2023, the U.S. Secretary of Defense openly declared that AI is integral to America’s security, “the most powerful tool in generations” for the military (DOD, 2023). China, for its part, has woven AI into its strategic plans, aiming for so-called “intelligentized warfare” where swarms of autonomous vehicles and smart weapons give Beijing an edge on any battlefield (War on the Rocks, 2022). This rivalry is often described as a new arms race, with AI as the ultimate prize. Unlike the nuclear standoff of the Cold War, this race is diffuse and multi-fronted – measured in algorithms, semiconductor chips, and the number of AI-enabled drones or missiles in arsenals. From Pentagon wargame simulations to Chinese research labs, the consensus is clear: falling behind in military AI could mean falling behind in national power. The Pentagon is investing in AI copilots for fighter jets and autonomous wingmen drones to accompany human pilots into combat (Defence Industry Europe, 2025). China counters with its own high-tech drone squadrons and surveillance systems supercharged by machine learning. Both nations pour billions into military AI, driven by a mix of fear and ambition – fear of the other side gaining a decisive advantage, and ambition to seize that advantage first.