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Pages 442-460
Received 17 Jun 2019
Accepted 24 Sep 2019
Published online: 09 Dec 2019
 
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How could AI-infused cyber capabilities be used to subvert, or otherwise compromise, the reliability, control and use of states’ nuclear forces? This article argues that a new generation of artificial intelligence (AI) enhanced cyber capabilities will amplify the risk of inadvertent escalation caused by the co-mingling of nuclear and strategic non-nuclear weapons and the increasing speed of warfare, thereby increasing the risk of nuclear confrontation. It examines the potential implications of cyber (offensive and defensive) capabilities augmented with AI applications for nuclear security. The article concludes that future iterations of AI-enhanced cyber counterforce capabilities will complicate the existing challenges of cyber defence, and in turn, compromise nuclear assets and increase the escalatory effects of offensive cyber capabilities.

Additional information

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Dr James Johnson is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, Monterey. James holds a Ph.D. in Politics & International Relations from the University of Leicester, where he is also an honorary visiting fellow with the School of History & International Relations. He is the author of The US-China Military & Defense Relationship during the Obama Presidency (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018). His latest book project is titled, Artificial Intelligence & the Future of Warfare: USA, China, and Strategic Stability. James is fluent in Mandarin.