Human-Machine Teaming in Artificial Intelligence-Driven Air Power

Human-Machine Teaming in Artificial Intelligence-Driven Air Power

Human-Machine Teaming in Artificial Intelligence-Driven Air Power

Future Challenges and Opportunities for the Air Force

By Jean-Marc Rickli and Federico Mantellassi

Artificial intelligence is slowly making its way into military operations, with advances in the discipline driving both a qualitative and quantitative increase of autonomy in the battlespace. This entails that warfi ghters will increasingly co-exist with machines with progressively more advanced autonomous capabilities. As machines make the jump from simple tools to cooperative teammates, human-machine teaming will be at the center of modern warfare. The loyal wingman concept for the air force shows that the quality of the interaction between the human and the machine is as essential to successful human-machine teaming as the technical sophistication of the machine. Understanding how to ensure trust between humans and machines will be critical. AI and machine learning will make trust more necessary and harder to achieve, while convergence with neurotechnologies might further complicate the task, bringing novel challenges.

Dr Jean-Marc Rickli is the Head of Global and Emerging Risks and the Founder and Director of the Polymath Initiative at the GCSP. He is also the co-chair of the Partnership for Peace Consortium (PfPC) Emerging Security Challenges Working Group and a senior advisor for the Artificial Intelligence Initiative at the Future Society. He is the co-curator of the International Security Map of the Strategic Intelligence Platform of the World Economic Forum. He is also a member of the Geneva University Committee for Ethical Research and of the advisory board of Tech4Trust, the first Swiss startup acceleration program in the field of digital trust and cybersecurity. Prior to these appointments, Dr Rickli was an assistant professor at the Department of Defence Studies of King’s College London and at the Institute for International and Civil Security at Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi. In 2020, he was nominated as one of the 100 most influential French-speaking Swiss by the Swiss newspaper Le Temps. Dr Rickli received his PhD in International Relations from Oxford University. His latest book published by Georgetown University is entitled Surrogate Warfare: The Transformation of War in the Twenty-first Century.
Mr Federico Mantellassi is a Research and Project Officer at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy where he has worked since 2018. Federico’s research and writing focuses on how emerging technologies impact international security and warfare, as well as on the societal implications of their development and use. Federico is also the project coordinator of the GCSP’s Polymath Initiative; an effort to create a community of scientists able bridge the gap between the scientific and technological community and the world of policy making. Previously, he assisted in the organisation of executive education activities at the GCSP and was the project coordinator of the annual Geneva Cyber 9/12 Strategy Challenge. He holds a Master’s Degree in Intelligence and International Security from King’s College London, and a Bachelor’s Degree in International Studies from the University of Leiden. Federico speaks English, French and Italian.

Disclaimer: This publication was originally published on Dubai International Air Chiefs' Conference website. The views, information and opinions expressed in this publication are the author’s/authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect those of the GCSP or the members of its Foundation Council. The GCSP is not responsible for the accuracy of the information