“The emergence of digital technologies from military research and development is well documented, so perhaps it’s a mark of continuity that security operations today are contingent on control of online traffic. The miles of cable at 33 Thomas Street undergird the digital placelessness of the contemporary security state. Such automation doesn’t inevitably make the state more effective, of course, as failures like 9/11 and Edward Snowden’s leaks make clear. But it does make for reduced accountability.

The market for AI-enabled weapons is predicted to reach $30 billion by the end of the decade. These weapons will at first be deployed in theaters of combat far from the metropole, deep in the ocean and high in the sky. The algorithms that give them agency will bounce from server farm to server farm, evolving as they go; they will be poor targets for democratic upswells of pro-human sentiment.”

– Zach Mortice

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