In recent days, the entire army and armed police forces have organized officers and soldiers in various forms to seriously study and discuss the important speech delivered by President Xi at the National Conference on Cybersecurity and Informatization. The officers and soldiers firmly expressed that they must earnestly study and implement the spirit of President Xi’s important speech, keenly seize the historical opportunity of informatization development, strengthen military-civilian integration in the field of cybersecurity and informatization, independently innovate and promote the construction of a cyber power, and make new contributions to winning the decisive battle to build a moderately prosperous society in all respects, winning the great victory of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era, and realizing the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
From April 20 to 21, the National Cybersecurity and Informatization Work Conference was held in Beijing. Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, President of the State, Chairman of the Central Military Commission, and Director of the Central Cybersecurity and Informatization Commission, attended the meeting and delivered an important speech. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Tao
Seize the historical opportunity to build a strong cyber power
——Officers and soldiers of the entire army and armed police force earnestly studied and implemented President Xi’s important speech at the National Conference on Cybersecurity and Informatization
Beijing, April 23 (People’s Liberation Army Daily) – In recent days, the entire army and armed police forces have organized officers and soldiers in various forms to seriously study and discuss the important speech delivered by President Xi at the National Conference on Cybersecurity and Informatization. The officers and soldiers firmly expressed that they must earnestly study and implement the spirit of President Xi’s important speech, keenly seize the historical opportunity of informatization development, strengthen military-civilian integration in the field of cybersecurity and informatization, independently innovate and promote the construction of a cyber power, and make new contributions to winning the decisive battle to build a moderately prosperous society in all respects, winning the great victory of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era, and realizing the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
“Informatization has brought a golden opportunity to the Chinese nation.” After studying President Xi’s important speech, the cadres of various departments of the CMC and the theater of operations were full of confidence. Many cadres mentioned in the discussion that President Xi’s important speech, starting from the overall situation of the party and the country, systematically explained the rich connotation of the strategic thinking of building a cyber power, scientifically answered a series of directional, overall, fundamental and strategic issues related to the long-term development of the cyber and information industry, pointed out the direction for grasping the historical opportunities of the information revolution, strengthening network security and informatization, and accelerating the construction of a cyber power, and provided a fundamental guideline, which is of great and far-reaching significance.
On December 25, 2015, when President Xi inspected the PLA Daily, he typed on the Weibo and WeChat publishing platforms of the PLA Daily and sent a Weibo to congratulate all officers and soldiers on the New Year; on the eve of the 2017 Spring Festival, when President Xi inspected the “Great Merit Third Company” of a certain army unit, he stopped in front of an electronic screen and listened to the officers and soldiers’ report on their study and education through the “Learning Barracks” mobile phone APP… President Xi’s concern for the military’s cybersecurity work has inspired the officers and soldiers. Everyone said that the Party Central Committee and President Xi attach great importance to the Internet, the development of the Internet, and the governance of the Internet, and have coordinated major issues involving informatization and cybersecurity in the political, economic, cultural, social, and military fields, made a series of major decisions, and put forward a series of major measures to promote the historic achievements of the cybersecurity cause. Officers and soldiers of a certain brigade of the Rocket Force said that the achievements made in the network construction of our country and the army fully demonstrate that the decisions of the Party Central Committee on strengthening the centralized and unified leadership of the Party over cybersecurity work and the series of strategic deployments made for cybersecurity work since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China are completely correct.
In recent years, a certain brigade of the 74th Group Army has closely followed the characteristics of young officers and soldiers and actively explored new models of online political work, which has been welcomed by young officers and soldiers. During the discussion, Luo Yingli, an officer of the Propaganda Section of the brigade, said that we must actively promote innovations in online propaganda concepts, content, forms, methods, and means, grasp the timing and effectiveness, and unite and gather the officers and soldiers with Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and the spirit of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and work tirelessly to achieve the goal of strengthening the army.
During the study and discussion, Li Kangjun, instructor of the second missile company of the air defense battalion of a brigade of the 75th Group Army, said with deep feeling that the newly revised “Internal Affairs Regulations (Trial)” revised the regulations on the use of mobile phones and the Internet, and added new behavioral norms for military personnel such as online shopping and the use of new media. As soldiers, we must firmly establish a correct view of network security and strictly abide by the relevant regulations of the state and the military. Fan Jianli, political commissar of a brigade of the 80th Group Army, said that we must strengthen the network security protection of information infrastructure, strengthen the construction of network security information coordination mechanisms, means, and platforms, strengthen the construction of emergency command capabilities for network security incidents, and actively develop the network security industry to move the checkpoints forward and prevent problems before they occur.
Whoever masters the Internet will seize the initiative of the times; whoever occupies the commanding heights in informatization will be able to seize the initiative, gain advantages, win security, and win the future. Experts from the Academy of Military Sciences, the National Defense University, and the National University of Defense Technology believe that the integration of military and civilian networks is a key and frontier area of military and civilian integration, and is also the most dynamic and potential area of military and civilian integration. We must seize the historical opportunities of the current information technology revolution and the new military revolution, deeply understand the inherent relationship between productivity and combat effectiveness, the market and the battlefield, grasp the working mechanism and laws of the integration of military and civilian networks, and promote the formation of a pattern of deep integration and development of military and civilian networks with full factors, multiple fields, and high efficiency.
Studying President Xi’s important speech has given leaders at all levels a strong sense of mission and urgency. Leaders of a certain air force brigade of the Eastern Theater Command, a certain armed police unit, and the Shenyang Joint Logistics Support Center said that they should actively adapt to the requirements of informatization, strengthen Internet thinking, and continuously improve their ability to grasp the laws of the Internet, guide online public opinion, control the development of informatization, and ensure network security. The Party Committee of a Red Army Corps of the Xinjiang Military Region has decided to include Internet information work in the Party Committee’s key work plan and important agenda, and use the Internet to solve the problems of “difficult, slow, and complicated work” that officers and soldiers strongly reflect.
Talent is the key to promoting the construction of a cyber power. A scientific and technological personnel of a unit of the Strategic Support Force said that in today’s world, network information technology is developing rapidly and has become a competitive highland for global technological innovation. We must continuously improve our own capabilities and qualities, focus on cutting-edge technologies and key core technologies, and work hard to overcome difficulties. A group of people from the Party Committee of a combat support ship detachment of the South China Sea Fleet said that it is necessary to study and formulate an overall plan for the development of talents in the field of cyber security, promote the reform of the talent development system and mechanism, and let the creative vitality of talents compete and burst out, and their wisdom and talents fully flow.
Informatization brings new opportunities for strengthening the military in the new era. During the study and discussion, the officers and soldiers said that they should firmly establish the idea of information-led and system construction, take positive and proactive actions, unswervingly take informatization as the development direction of the modernization of the military, take the network information system as a starting point, promote the leapfrog development of our military’s informatization construction, and comprehensively improve our military’s system combat capabilities.
(Reporter Zhang Kejin of the PLA Daily, special correspondent Wang Xuechao, correspondents Zheng Guangbin, Li Hengjian, Chen Hongjia, Wan Yongkang, Zhang Qiang, Yu Wenbin, Li Yunfeng, Meng Zhuolin, Li Jiahao, Tan Wenwei, Wang Yuting, Cao Zhiguo, Xu Fengfang, Hou Wei, Chen Zhi, Luo Kunkang, Li Guolin, Ma Yixun, Zhao Lei, Yang Guiliang)
Recently, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced the establishment of the “Era Military Innovation Technology Park”, which focuses on scientific research, testing and simulation of advanced weapons, military and special equipment. Coincidentally, the US military is also stepping up the development of the “Soldiers Build Intelligence System Military Training Support” project, hoping to better assist officers and soldiers in conducting military intelligence training by providing equipment, simulators and simulation modeling services. The frequently mentioned military simulation technology has attracted attention from all parties. With the rapid development of cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence and other technologies, military simulation technology has made significant progress in equipment construction, military exercises, combat training and logistics support. At present, major military powers have recognized the huge application prospects of simulation technology in the military field and regard it as an “advanced intelligence contest” in modern warfare.
The “virtual battlefield” can also deploy troops
Once upon a time, we all “learned about war from war”. The emergence of military simulation technology has allowed us to learn about future wars from the “virtual battlefield”.
Simulation technology mainly relies on computer and other equipment platforms, and uses mathematical models to conduct scientific research, analysis, evaluation and decision-making on issues that need to be studied. Military simulation systems are simulation systems built specifically for military applications. They can conduct quantitative analysis of combat elements such as land, sea, air, space, electricity, and the Internet, the performance of weapons and equipment, and combat operations, and then accurately simulate the battlefield environment, present relevant battlefield situations, and achieve effectiveness evaluation of the combat system and command decision-making assistance.
At present, military simulation systems have become an effective means of studying future wars, designing weapons and equipment, and supporting the evaluation of tactics, and they run through the entire process of weapons and equipment development and testing. In recent years, military simulation technology has been increasingly regarded as a multiplier for improving combat effectiveness and one of the key technologies for national defense security and troop construction and development.
The United States has always listed modeling and simulation as an important key defense technology. As early as 1992, the United States announced the “Defense Modeling and Simulation Initiative” and established a special Defense Modeling and Simulation Office. The United States also specifically listed the “integrated simulation environment” as one of the seven driving technologies to maintain the US military advantage. At the same time, European countries attach great importance to the development of military simulation technology, and strive to continuously improve simulation methods in the process of developing a new generation of weapon systems, thereby improving the comprehensive effectiveness of weapon equipment construction and development.
In fact, military simulation technology has allowed people to fully learn about future wars in experiments. Before the outbreak of the Gulf War, the US Department of Defense used military simulation technology to analyze and determine the direct consequences of Iraq igniting all oil wells in Kuwait, which had a profound impact on the US military’s formulation of the Gulf War combat plan. In the integrated ballistic missile defense system project carried out by the US military, modeling and simulation methods are specifically used to conduct a preliminary assessment of the ballistic missile defense system. At the end of 2017, the US Department of Defense’s Advanced Research Projects Agency invested 12.8 million US dollars specifically for the construction of virtual simulation space battlefields. The US Army also spent 57 million US dollars to develop the Army Infantry Training System – this immersive military virtual simulation training system can provide soldiers with a more realistic battlefield combat simulation environment.
A brainstorming session to plan operations
From artillery simulation, aircraft simulation, missile simulation to today’s various types of weapon system equipment simulation and combat simulation, while simulation technology continues to meet the needs of military applications, it is also rapidly developing in the direction of virtualization, networking, intelligence, collaboration and universalization. In order to continuously improve military simulation calculation methods and improve simulation technology, people are constantly launching a “brainstorming” to plan operations.
Mathematical modeling algorithm. Mathematical model is the basis of simulation. To carry out simulation, we must first build a mathematical model of the object to be simulated. At the same time, the correctness and accuracy of the mathematical model directly affect the credibility of the simulation calculation results. In recent years, the rapid development of artificial intelligence technology has provided new ideas for mathematical modeling. Introducing artificial intelligence to build mathematical models can not only effectively improve the realism, reliability and accuracy of simulation models, but also further improve the efficiency of modeling and simulation.
Virtual reality technology. With virtual reality technology, people can interact with objects in a virtual simulation environment through related equipment, thereby creating an effect of “immersion” in the real environment. The augmented reality technology that has emerged in recent years has further increased the user’s perception of the virtual simulation system, and can superimpose virtual objects, scenes, and information generated by the military simulation system onto the real scene. The U.S. Army is currently relying on virtual reality and augmented reality technologies to develop the future overall training environment to achieve seamless, mixed immersive combat training.
Network grid technology. The realization of military simulation is inseparable from the strong support of computers, local area networks, software engineering and other technologies. The distributed interactive simulation that integrates simulation equipment or systems of different types in different locations into a whole provides a more realistic application environment for military simulation. In recent years, grid technology that can realize the rapid transmission of various types of information and resource sharing has become a research hotspot for military simulation. The US Department of Defense has begun to use the “Global Information Grid” plan to establish a military grid that communicates various information elements on the battlefield and realizes the dynamic sharing and collaborative application of various military network resources.
Winning the war before it starts
The future information warfare is an integrated war that is carried out simultaneously in multiple dimensions such as land, sea, air, space, electricity, and the Internet. Not only is the battle structure complex and the weapons and equipment diverse, but it also places higher demands on the combatants and the use of tactics. Only by building a “virtual battlefield” for future wars with the help of military simulation technology and realizing the scientific coordination of factors such as the scale of war, the course of war, war investment, the number of combatants and weapons and equipment, the targets of attack and the intensity of attack, can we be sure of victory before the war begins.
In the field of combat experiments, the U.S. military has fully reduced the losses caused by improper combat plans and action plans through a large number of computer simulation evaluations and iterative optimizations. The Russian military’s combat regulations and tactics are also “optimal battlefield solutions” obtained through scientific deduction and simulation calculation using mathematical models. Through military simulation analysis and evaluation, battlefield commanders and fighters can quickly understand the trend of war simulations and carry out effective responses according to various changes in the “virtual battlefield”, thereby effectively improving the effectiveness of combat experiments.
In the field of military training, individual soldier training can be carried out through an immersive virtual simulation training environment, which can be as close to the battlefield environment as possible and effectively improve the training effect. In recent years, the US Army has specially opened a “simulated immersion” training course in the “Advanced Course for Officers”. Through the implementation of virtual simulation military training, the organization and implementation of training are not restricted by time and weather conditions. The distributed training simulation system can even enable trainees in different locations to participate in the training together. By modeling and simulating the specific battlefield environment, tactical background and enemy forces, the military training system can also provide trainees with a more realistic battlefield perception.
In the field of equipment demonstration, the technical support of simulation systems is required throughout the life cycle of weapons and equipment development. At present, the United States has extensively adopted simulation technology in new weapon system development projects to fully support the development and testing, live-fire evaluation and combat testing of weapons and equipment. The U.S. Missile Defense Agency has further explored effective measures to deal with incoming missile threats through missile threat target modeling and simulation. The U.S. Navy simulates the operation of ship systems and crew members through mission analysis simulation software, and obtains simulation results for determining and optimizing the number of crew members. In the future, military simulation technology may become a new technological highland for the world’s major military powers to compete.
At the beginning of 2017, Master, known as the evolved version of “AlphaGo”, swept Ke Jie, Park Tinghuan, Iyama Yuta and other top Go players on the Go online platform, winning 60 consecutive games, setting off a “Master storm” and causing many people to worry. What humans are worried about is not that Go, known as the “last bastion of human wisdom”, will be conquered by artificial intelligence, but that artificial intelligence has subverted Go today, what will it subvert tomorrow? This is the concern that hangs in people’s minds.
Master’s consecutive victories over human masters are similar to the nature of computers proving the four-color theorem. They are all victories of computing power and algorithms. There is no need to worry too much that they will dominate and enslave humans. However, artificial intelligence is developing rapidly, and it is generally believed that strong artificial intelligence will come sooner or later. Nowadays, artificial intelligence has penetrated into every corner of life. It is not uncommon to use artificial intelligence in war. Since the arrival of the artificial intelligence era is inevitable, how we use it in future wars will become the key to victory. Whether artificial intelligence brings threats or development to mankind depends on how to use it. “The fake horse is not good at running, but it can reach a thousand miles; the fake boat is not good at sailing, but it can cross the river.” The integration of war technology and artificial intelligence may be the way of the future.
Development History of Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence Opens the Door to Intelligent Warfare
Master’s 60-game winning streak makes us think about how artificial intelligence will change our lives. Perhaps the following life scenarios will gradually become a reality:
When driving, you tell the location and the autopilot system takes you to your destination;
In hospitals, you see tug-trailer robots from the United States transporting medical equipment and “Big White” robots caring for patients;
After get off work, you press the “Go Home Mode” on your phone, and when you open the door, you find that the curtains are closed, the temperature is right, the lights are soft, the water is hot, and there is a cute home robot greeting you.
In fact, you can also use an unmanned aerial vehicle to carry a diamond ring and propose to your beloved…
We have been looking forward to this day for a long time.
The era of great development of artificial intelligence is here!
As early as shortly after the first computer came out, scientists predicted that the era of artificial intelligence would come. In 1997, when Deep Blue defeated Kasparov, this beautiful scene seemed just around the corner. However, in the second half of the 20th century, artificial intelligence research fell into a cold winter due to the failure of several attempts at technological innovation. The most recent cold winter, from the end of the 20th century to the first decade of the 21st century, was caused by the bottleneck encountered in the research of neural networks.
In recent years, everyone can clearly feel that the theoretical research and perceptible products of artificial intelligence seem to have suddenly “exploded” in a blowout manner: wearable devices have appeared in large numbers, intelligent robots have appeared frequently, the accuracy of machine face recognition exceeds that of the naked eye, companies such as Apple and BMW have worked together to develop driverless cars, and the United States and Europe have successively established projects to tackle the human brain…
The explosion of artificial intelligence projects is not a coincidence, but a leap forward after more than 10 years of silence. Ray Kurzweil, an American scientist who successfully predicted that robots will defeat human chess players, has predicted that the wonderful intersection point when artificial intelligence surpasses the sum of human wisdom will be in 2045.
So, how big an impact will this wave of artificial intelligence explosion have, how long will the impact last, and to what extent will it change human life?
From weak artificial intelligence to strong artificial intelligence. After Deep Blue dominated the chess field in 1997, artificial intelligence did not change the world as expected, and Deep Blue disappeared after more than 10 years of silence. Artificial intelligence has also remained at the stage of weak artificial intelligence and has not made any breakthroughs. This period of nearly 20 years has become the longest artificial intelligence winter to date. Some people joked that the greatest achievement in the field of artificial intelligence in the past 20 years is that Spielberg made the science fiction movie “Artificial Intelligence” that has captivated the world. Spielberg put all the rich fantasies of human beings about the future world into the movie world he created. Subsequently, a series of movies about artificial intelligence such as “Robot Butler”, “Super Hacker” and “Ex Machina” came into being. Artificial intelligence has begun to enter all aspects of human life. The use of artificial intelligence in industries such as medicine, education, services, manufacturing, and even in the military field has become common, which makes many military enthusiasts think about what artificial intelligence means to the military field and where it will go in the future?
“AlphaGo” only represents the latest achievements of artificial intelligence in the fields of deep learning of machines based on neural networks, high-performance computing and big data technology, and is a weak artificial intelligence. However, some military experts predict that the application of strong artificial intelligence in the future will bring about huge changes, just like the entry of big data five years ago. In the military field where competition and game are more intense, artificial intelligence has been increasingly moving towards the battlefield since the emergence of computers in the last century, promoting the advent of the era of intelligent warfare.
Artificial intelligence is taking big steps onto the battlefield
Artificial intelligence is an important branch of modern information technology. The world’s first programmable “Giant” computer was born in Britain during World War II. Its purpose was to help the British army decipher German codes. In recent years, artificial intelligence has been increasingly used on the battlefield, profoundly changing the face of war. In summary, the application of artificial intelligence in the military field is mainly reflected in the following five aspects:
Intelligent perception and information processing. The rapid development of micro-electromechanical systems, wireless sensor network technology, and cloud computing technology has further developed battlefield perception methods in the direction of intelligent perception and information fusion processing. The U.S. military, Russian military, French military, German military, etc. are all equipped with digital soldier systems with intelligent information perception and processing capabilities, such as the U.S. military’s “Night Warrior” and the Russian military’s “Warrior”. In fiscal year 2015, the U.S. Department of Defense’s Advanced Research Projects Agency added research and development projects such as the “cerebral cortex processor”. This processor simulates the structure of the human cerebral cortex to solve problems such as real-time control of high-speed moving objects. In the future, its application will greatly improve the autonomous action capabilities of robots and drones.
Intelligent command and control assists decision-making. The military of various countries develops various military information systems in order to build a powerful grid network information system and improve intelligent evaluation and decision-making assistance capabilities. The command and control automation systems of major military powers are constantly developing, pursuing stronger information and decision-making advantages than their opponents. In recent years, the US military has established a cyber command to vigorously strengthen its network attack and defense capabilities, focusing on the development of intelligent diagnostic information systems for network intrusions based on cloud computing, big data analysis and other technologies, which can automatically diagnose the source of network intrusions, the degree of damage to one’s own network and data recovery capabilities.
Unmanned military platforms. Western countries began to attach importance to the research and development and application of small drones, remote-controlled unmanned vehicles and unmanned boats during World War I. At present, the armies of more than 70 countries in the world are developing unmanned system platforms. The US military has equipped more than 7,000 drones, and more than 12,000 ground wheeled (or tracked) robots have been put into use on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. In the near future, the US military will achieve that ground robots account for one-third of its ground forces, and the carrier-based X-47B drone will account for one-third of the total number of carrier-based aircraft, further promoting the coordinated training and exercise between manned and unmanned platforms.
Bionic robots. Since the 21st century, robot technology has developed rapidly. Various bionic robots such as humanoid robots, robot fish, and robot insects have been continuously introduced and have been increasingly used in the military field. For example, the US military once tested a “big dog” robot on the battlefield in Afghanistan to help soldiers with accompanying support. The US Department of Defense upgraded it in 2013, increasing its load capacity to 200 kilograms, running speed to 12 kilometers per hour, bulletproof and silent. The Russian army recently plans to step up the development of humanoid robots that can drive vehicles and form a robot unit that can fight side by side with human soldiers.
Expanding people’s physical skills and intelligence. The cross-integration of information technology, new material technology and biotechnology will further expand people’s physical strength, skills and intelligence. For example, foreign militaries are developing mechanical exoskeletons to create “mech warriors” with doubled physical strength; and by implanting bioinformatics chips to improve people’s memory and reaction ability, so that human soldiers can better adapt to the highly informationized combat environment in the future.
Artificial intelligence will drive a new round of military reforms
When new military technologies, operational concepts, and organizational structures interact to significantly enhance military combat capabilities, it will trigger new military changes. The increasingly widespread application of artificial intelligence in the military field is becoming an important driver of military change, giving rise to new war styles and changing the internal mechanism of winning wars.
It brings a new impact on the concept of war. The history of human warfare has gone through the era of cold weapons, the era of hot weapons, the era of mechanization, and the era of informatization. The development of artificial intelligence has accelerated the arrival of the intelligent era. Can intelligence be divided into high-level intelligence and low-level intelligence? Do armies with high-level intelligence have an overwhelming advantage over low-level intelligence armies? If the “mechanization” of people and the “humanization” of machines are two inevitable development trends, does it go against the traditional ethics of war for robots that can think to fight instead of humans? Artificial intelligence has unprecedentedly improved battlefield perception and information processing capabilities. Does the “fog” of war still exist on the high-tech battlefield? To understand these issues, the military field must have a brainstorming session.
It brings new inspiration to theoretical innovation. The material and technological basis of war is constantly updated, opening up new space for innovation in strategic theories and operational concepts, and constantly giving birth to new disruptive technologies in the field of artificial intelligence; the combined application of precision strike ammunition, unmanned equipment and network information systems has given birth to new intelligent combat theories such as “distributed lethality”, “mothership theory”, “combat cloud” and “swarm tactics”; relying on one’s own information advantage and decision-making advantage, how to cut off and delay the opponent’s information and decision-making loop in a decentralized battlefield network has become a core issue that must be solved to win in intelligent warfare.
Future Trends in Military Applications of Artificial Intelligence
With the development and application of strategic frontier technology fields such as information technology, nanotechnology, biotechnology, new materials technology, and new energy technology, artificial intelligence-related technologies will continue to mature and play an increasingly important role in the military field.
Artificial intelligence technology and equipment continue to make breakthroughs. Major countries have elevated artificial intelligence to the level of national strategy. The Office of the Chief Scientist of the U.S. Air Force has issued the “Unmanned Systems Horizon” technology assessment and forecast report for 2035, which believes that the automation, autonomy and remote control performance of various unmanned systems and combat platforms in the future will continue to make breakthroughs with the advancement of technology. In particular, with the advancement of technologies such as super-large-scale computing, quantum computing, cloud computing, big data, and brain-like chips, artificial intelligence information processing and control technology will be greatly developed, profoundly changing the proportion of artificial intelligence technology in modern warfare.
Artificial intelligence has given rise to the vigorous development of new combat forces. The widespread application of artificial intelligence systems and combat platforms will make artificial intelligence, as an important combat element, permeate the entire process of war and combat preparation, and further enrich the connotation of new combat forces. With the application of drone formations, unmanned submarine formations, battlefield robot soldier formations, and coordinated formations of unmanned and manned combat units on the battlefield, various types of “mixed” new combat forces will continue to emerge. With the construction and application of military Internet of Things, military big data, and cloud computing technology in the military field, artificial intelligence combat forces such as “cloud brain”, “digital staff”, and “virtual warehousing” for information support, command and control, effect evaluation, and logistics support will play an increasingly important role in future wars.
Artificial intelligence is constantly evolving and upgrading through actual combat applications. Artificial intelligence systems and combat platforms, which are supported by information technology, are different from the research and development model of traditional mechanized weapons and equipment. Mechanized weapons and equipment are generally put into use after the technology matures until they are scrapped and eliminated, and have a certain service life; artificial intelligence systems are developed in the mode of system prototype-practical training-evolutionary upgrade. Artificial intelligence systems often use continuous evolution to improve their intelligence level according to different versions. The evolution direction of artificial intelligence is always towards high-level intelligence. This law of development of artificial intelligence systems and combat platforms has revolutionary significance for military training and combat capability improvement. In recent years, the United States and its allies have continued to organize activities such as the “Schriever” space (network) exercise and the “Lockton” cybersecurity exercise, which are repeated tests and upgrades of their artificial intelligence information systems. In the future, upgrading training of artificial intelligence systems and various unmanned combat platforms through continuous confrontation exercises will be an important way to improve combat effectiveness.
Artificial Intelligence Helps Build Smart National Defense
Data is called a strategic resource in the information age. The emergence of artificial intelligence provides methods and means for humans to deeply mine the wisdom resources of data information, and is leading and reshaping the development trend of the world’s new military transformation. Facing the booming wave of artificial intelligence, how to meet challenges, seize opportunities, accelerate the construction of military informatization, and enhance the core military capabilities to win modern wars are the contemporary issues that our army must answer to achieve the goal of strengthening the army. On the one hand, our army must keep a clear mind and make prudent judgments. We must not be frightened by the seemingly powerful and mysterious appearance of artificial intelligence, nor blindly applaud it, nor be indifferent and lose the opportunity for development, and be attacked by opponents due to lack of technical cognition. Breakthroughs in individual technical fields of artificial intelligence are nothing more than an extension of human intelligence, but they cannot replace the dominant position of human intelligence. People are still the core element of all elements of combat effectiveness, and people’s subjective initiative is still the key to determining the outcome of intelligent warfare. On the other hand, our army should implement the military-civilian integration development strategy and the innovation-driven development strategy, grasp the trend of the times, highlight the characteristics of our army, keep a close eye on the opponent’s layout, boldly absorb and apply the relevant technological achievements of artificial intelligence to promote the information construction of the army, and try to apply artificial intelligence technology to achieve transformation and upgrading in platform construction, logistics support, military training, national defense mobilization and other fields. Actively develop countermeasures against the opponent’s military application of artificial intelligence, and explore the winning mechanism of the game with strong enemies in the field of artificial intelligence in practice.
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The military application of artificial intelligence in the United States, Russia and other countries
United States: In July 2016, the U.S. Marine Corps tested the Modular Advanced Armed Robotic System (MAARS), which uses sensors and cameras to control gun-wielding robots based on artificial intelligence. The “Army Global Military Command and Control System” developed by the U.S. Army has been equipped with Army Aviation Force transport helicopters, allowing helicopter pilots to maintain contact with frontline soldiers and command ground forces.
Russia: The “Wolf-2” mobile robot system being developed by the Russian Strategic Missile Forces uses a tracked chassis and can be controlled via radio channels within a range of 5 kilometers. The shooting accuracy is guaranteed by a thermal imager, ballistic computer, laser rangefinder and gyro stabilizer, and it can hit the target at a speed of 35 kilometers per hour.
Israel: The robot “Dogo” developed by the company is an automatically armed tactical combat robot, which comes with a standard Glock 26 9mm caliber pistol. It can be said to be a little devil.
The arrival of the “Master” makes the combat style develop towards unmanned
The Go account Master has challenged the world’s top players on two major Go platforms, Yicheng Go and Tencent Go, and won 60 consecutive games, which has attracted great attention from the world on artificial intelligence. Few people thought that in the field of Go, machines did not experience a period of “stalemate” with humans, but directly left in the dust.
Engels once said that the application of cutting-edge technology began in the military field. Military struggle is a comprehensive contest covering multiple dimensions, multiple fields, full time domain and high intensity, and the addition of artificial intelligence will accelerate the pace of military reform in various countries like a catalyst. Looking at the entire process of the two industrial revolutions and the two world wars, we will find that there is an inevitable connection between “technology” and “war”. Technology will trigger war, and war in turn will promote the development of technology. At this stage, all countries have made great progress in the development of information and intelligent weapons and equipment, and various precise positioning, precise strike, and precise evaluation weapon systems have emerged in an endless stream. However, humans have not yet been separated from the weapon system, and a large part of the operations still need to be completed manually. The combination of artificial intelligence and weapons and equipment means that in the future, from searching and discovering targets, to threat assessment, to locking and destroying, and then to effect evaluation, this series of processes does not require human participation at all. Machines can help us make decisions and achieve unmanned development of combat styles.
Master quietly disappeared after winning 60 games in a row, but discussions about the future of artificial intelligence are still endless: Will it take away human jobs, or will it be an extension of human functions? Will it eventually surpass human intelligence, or will it merge with humans? The answers to these questions are not as simple as either one or the other. Solving them will accompany the future development of artificial intelligence. In 1997, “Deep Blue” defeated Kasparov, making more use of computer computing expertise such as hardware acceleration and brute force computing. AlphaGo uses new artificial intelligence technologies such as neural networks, deep learning, and Monte Carlo tree search, and its strength has already made a substantial leap. These new technologies make artificial intelligence more competent for tasks such as voice and image recognition and evaluation and analysis, and are therefore an important development direction.
Although the dust has settled on this round of the Go “man-machine battle”, the thoughts it has triggered in various fields are very worthy of study. Among them, “‘man-machine battle’ is the best pre-practice of war” is particularly worthy of serious study in the military field. Whether in the era of cold weapons or the mechanized era, fighting on the front line relies on “human wave tactics”, and solving problems requires “concentrating superior forces”. Informatized warfare no longer uses “human wave tactics”, and the scene of large-scale fighting is difficult to reproduce, but as far as the entire war is concerned, the use of troops is not necessarily less, on the contrary, it may be more, but the number of troops used at the forefront has been greatly reduced, and the position of the troops has undergone a major shift. In the unmanned, networked and non-contact combat mode of future wars, there will be more participants, and sometimes you cannot know who the opponent is or where he is hiding.
Although the competition field and the battlefield have different operating rules, many of the winning mechanisms are the same. In the past, we could only learn about war in war, but now we can learn about war in a computer-simulated, near-actual combat environment, and deduce the offensive and defensive modes and development trends of future wars. “AlphaGo” can easily collect the chess games of many Go masters, but in the military field, it is extremely difficult to obtain relevant data on your opponent’s training, exercises, and even combat! Future wars are carried out with the support of information systems. Only by solving the core problem of human-machine integration can we take the initiative on the battlefield and win the final victory in modern warfare. (Zhu Qichao, Wang Jingling, Li Daguang)
An analysis of the use of strategies in intelligent warfare
■Chen Dongheng, Zhong Ya
Reading Tips: “Warfare is the art of deception”. War is a competition of comprehensive strength. Ancient Chinese military strategists have always attached great importance to “strategizing in the tent and winning thousands of miles away”, and all of them regard strategy as the way to victory. War practice shows that as long as war is a confrontation between humans, smart strategies will not withdraw from the battlefield. Today’s battlefield competition is about intelligent skills, and what is fought is smart strategies.
“The best military is to attack the enemy’s strategy, the next best is to attack the enemy’s alliance, the next best is to attack the enemy’s soldiers, and the worst is to attack the city.” Strategy, as a component of combat power and a weapon to win the war, runs through ancient and modern times and transcends national boundaries, and has an important function of influencing and determining the outcome of the war. Although the role of science and technology is more prominent in intelligent warfare, it does not exclude the use of strategy. With the support and guidance of strategy, the combat system is more efficient. In-depth research and mastery of the use of strategy in intelligent warfare will be more conducive to winning the initiative in intelligent warfare.
The status and role of the use of strategy in intelligent warfare
The essence of strategy lies in the intelligent release of power. Scientific strategy application can often defeat the majority with the minority, the big with the small, and the strong with the weak. The battlefield of intelligent warfare presents more transparency, more extended combat space, more diverse means of confrontation, and more complex winning mechanism. This provides a solid material foundation and technical support for the implementation of strategy, and the status and role of strategy are becoming more and more important.
The internal driving force of the army construction and development planning. Demand is the order of the army, and use is the commander of the weapon. How science and technology are innovated, how weapons and equipment are developed, and how the national defense forces are built are often driven by demand and forward-looking planning. For example, in order to make up for the gap between Russia and the United States in terms of overall air defense and anti-missile strength, Russia used “asymmetric” strategies to focus on penetration technology and developed the “Zircon” and “Dagger” hypersonic missiles before the United States. Facts show that the application of strategies mainly focuses on “Tao” and “Fa”. The more reasonable the design and the more scientific the application, the more it can stimulate the motivation, vitality and potential of innovation and creation, and trigger a revolution in science and technology, weapons and equipment, and military construction and combat methods. Only when intelligent warfare, scientific and technological innovation and weapons and equipment development are closely connected with the needs of scientific war strategies can they adhere to the correct direction and be better transformed into actual combat power.
A multiplier of the actual combat effectiveness of the combat system. In the combat power spectrum, strategy, as an important soft power, has the value and significance of providing scientific methodological guidance, appropriate time and opportunity selection and correct path support for the use of military hard power. For example, Iran once used the “dislocation” tactics to launch a large-scale retaliatory air strike against Israel, first using hundreds of cheap drones to attract the consumption of Israel’s expensive air defense system, and then using more advanced high-value ballistic missiles to penetrate, which improved the hit rate to a certain extent. Facts show that when facing an opponent with superior hard power, if the strategy is used properly, it can also achieve miraculous results; and the same hard power may have very different combat effectiveness when using different strategies and tactics. In intelligent warfare, although the “blade” of military hard power is faster, in order to make it more effective, it still needs to rely on more sophisticated strategic “sword skills”.
Dependent variables of hybrid warfare operations. Strategy can not only empower military hard power, but also has a strong direct combat function, and can even defeat the enemy without fighting by “soft killing”. For example, the United States once spent a lot of money to capture the leader of al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, but he seemed to have disappeared from the world, and technical means could not determine his exact hiding place. He was finally tracked down by targeting his messenger through strategic use. The United States’ “live broadcast” “Spear of Poseidon” operation attempted to show the strength of the US military by killing Bin Laden to shock the international community. Intelligent warfare is a hybrid warfare, which has entered a new era of global live broadcast, universal participation, and full coverage. More and more countries are adopting strategic methods to enhance their own confidence and strike the opponent’s will to resist, and the strategic “soft kill” combat function is becoming more and more apparent.
Basic mechanism of intelligent warfare strategy application
Intelligent warfare, high-level development of artificial intelligence, rapid iteration, full spectrum penetration, and high-efficiency release, make the application of strategy have more dimensional support and stronger drive, showing a unique operation mechanism.
Cluster operation of strategy application. The application of strategy is based on the underlying logic of war operation and follows the law of evolution of the subject from individual to team and then to system. From a historical perspective, the application of strategy warfare in the cold weapon era relied more on the wisdom and experience accumulation of generals. Natural factors such as geography and weather are the main grasps of strategy operation. The burning of Red Cliff and borrowing arrows from straw boats are vivid footnotes. In the mechanized era, in order to adapt to the increasingly complex composition of military branches and the needs of fast-paced operations, the “General Staff” of senior military institutions dedicated to war planning services came into being. The “General Staff” in the two world wars is a typical representative. In the information age, the use of war strategies mainly relies on the control of information, and information power has become the main support behind strategic planning. In intelligent warfare, the comprehensiveness of technology application, the systematic nature of force planning, and the platform characteristics of game confrontation are more prominent, and the internal requirements are that the subject of strategy implementation should shift to a more powerful systematic platform.
Algorithm-driven strategy application. Strategy is based on strategy. The essence of planning is calculation, calculation of the world situation, calculation of military situation, calculation of development trend, calculation of strength and weakness, calculation of winning advantage… Whether it is calculation by human brain or machine, calculation by generals or calculation by teams, calculation is always the most critical supporting factor. Generally speaking, whoever has stronger computing power, more precise algorithms, and faster calculations can grab the “calculation” machine and win the victory. In the era of intelligent calculation, artificial intelligence participates in strategic decision-making with human-machine hybrid algorithms or machine algorithms, which greatly enhances the efficiency of calculation. It is based on this that major countries have focused on breakthroughs in artificial intelligence to win the future competition. These artificial intelligences, characterized by strong computing power, have great application potential in simulating battlefield situations, simulating war processes, and assisting decision-making and command. Only by guarding against the opponent’s technical aggression, vigorously improving our computing power, and adding the wings of algorithms to traditional strategies can we be invincible in the strategic game confrontation.
Intelligent support for the use of strategies. In intelligent warfare, strategies are based on the rapid development of artificial intelligence and its extensive military applications. It is a two-way “rush” of human strategic wisdom and “technical” wisdom. Now, the generals’ ingenuity and traditional staff work have become increasingly difficult to adapt to the needs of intelligent warfare. Comprehensive intelligent command and decision-making platforms have become an important support for the implementation of strategies. The command and decision-making system of the US military has developed into a large platform that integrates four-layer structural functions, including “intelligence support, information fusion, mission coordination, autonomous decision-making, action deployment, force allocation, situation adjustment, and real-time tracking”, and has become the brain of its “decision-making center warfare”. The Russian Federation Armed Forces Combat Command Center can dispatch and monitor the training and exercises of the entire army in real time, and undertake combat command tasks in low-intensity small-scale conflicts. It can be seen that intelligent support for strategic planning and strategy implementation has gradually taken shape. Intelligent strategic confrontation has put forward higher requirements for the professional integration of strategic subjects, and promoted the deep integration of human biological intelligence and artificial intelligence, which is “human-like intelligence”.
Main ways to use strategies in intelligent warfare
In intelligent warfare, the era background, supporting conditions, and action mechanisms of strategy application have undergone profound changes. The way of implementing strategies must keep pace with the times, strive to combine traditional strategic advantages with new technologies and new forms of warfare, innovate and expand scientific paths to effectively release strategic energy, and strive to plan quickly, plan carefully, and integrate strategy and attack.
Intelligent technology integration releases energy. That is, make full use of intelligent technology to empower and release energy for strategies. Generally speaking, the effective implementation of strategies is inseparable from accurate information perception, rapid personnel mobilization, and efficient force strikes. The innovative application of artificial intelligence enables people to see farther, hear more closely, know more, and calculate faster, making the army gather and disperse more quickly, move more covertly, and release power more rapidly, which is more conducive to the generation of strategies and the achievement of effectiveness. On the one hand, with the help of the rapidity and autonomy of artificial intelligence, the enemy situation can be quickly grasped through intelligent reconnaissance, the decision-making time can be greatly shortened by using machine algorithms, and the optimal strategy can be selected with the help of simulation deduction; on the other hand, relying on artificial intelligence to release and enhance the efficiency of strategies, modern brain control technology, deep fake technology, information confusion technology, public opinion guidance technology, etc., have greatly expanded the space and means of implementing strategies.
Human-machine complementation releases energy. That is, the strengths and weaknesses of human intelligence and machine intelligence complement each other and enhance efficiency and release energy. The biggest advantage of machine intelligence over human intelligence is that it can fight continuously without being affected by biological factors such as will, emotion, psychology, and physical strength. However, the “meta-intelligence” of human intelligence and its ability to adapt to changes are not possessed by machine intelligence. The two intelligence advantages complement each other and aggregate to form a powerful hybrid intelligence, which strongly supports the use of strategies in war. On the one hand, the “machine brain” safely and efficiently makes up for the shortcomings of the human brain; on the other hand, the human brain responds to special situations on the spot. Facts show that the biggest advantage of human intelligence over machine intelligence is that it can make decisions and deal with different situations on the spot, which just makes up for the shortcomings of machine intelligence. Only by combining the two can we form the optimal solution for intelligent calculation and gather the strongest strategic application.
The platform releases energy as a whole. It is to create a modular intelligent system, an integrated intelligent decision-making command action platform that integrates strategy generation and release. Intelligent warfare, every second counts, improves the time sensitivity of target strikes. The intelligent platform comprehensively uses intelligent computing and command automation technology to efficiently process massive data and complex battlefield situations, creating a “super brain” for commanders. It has significant advantages of good functional connection, high stability, fast operation speed, and high combat efficiency. It is a new quality combat force for strategic planning. Relying on the intelligent command and control system, it can make real-time decisions, form a list of time-sensitive targets, and independently solve the combat units and strike platforms that can be summoned and struck the fastest and best. The hardware and software can accurately strike the targets, and accurate strikes on time-sensitive targets can be achieved in real-time decisions, providing more options for assisting war decision-making and command.
With the rise of the global Internet and the development of emerging media, the world’s major military powers are now paying great attention to the strategic issue of cognitive space security. The recently published monograph “Brain Control: The Laws of War and National Security Strategy in the Global Media Age” focuses on the future development trend of war and the issue of national cognitive space security in the global media era. It puts forward the concept of “brain control” in cognitive space, which has attracted the attention of the military academic community. On this topic, the reporter interviewed the main author of the book, Professor Zeng Huafeng, Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences of the National University of Defense Technology.
“Subjugating the enemy without fighting” is the highest realm of information warfare
Reporter: The concept of brain control is inseparable from the understanding of cognitive space. What is cognitive space and what is brain control?
Zeng Huafeng: Information warfare is the unity of material and spirit, concept and reality. It is not only the manifestation of the development of material form, but also the inevitable result of the action of spiritual factors. Information warfare has enabled human warfare to truly have three combat spaces for the first time: one is the natural space composed of land, sea, air, and space; the second is the network electromagnetic space based on physical principles, which is essentially a technical space; the third is the cognitive space composed of human spiritual and psychological activities. To win the future information warfare, we must grasp the initiative of the war, obtain the control of the war domain, and dominate the discourse of the war. Seizing the control of the brain in the cognitive space and “defeating the enemy without fighting” is the highest realm of information warfare.
Cognitive space refers to the scope and field of human cognitive activities. It is an invisible space that reflects people’s emotions, will, beliefs and values, and exists in the minds of participants in the struggle. The national cognitive space exists in the subjective world of each individual, and is composed of the superposition of the cognitive spaces of countless individuals in the whole society. National interests exist not only in physical form in natural space and technological space, but also invisibly in cognitive space. “Brain control” is to use the spiritual information carried by propaganda media, national languages, cultural products, etc. as weapons, to infiltrate, influence and even dominate the cognition, emotions and consciousness of the general public and national elites, and ultimately manipulate a country’s values, national spirit, ideology, cultural traditions, historical beliefs, etc., to prompt it to abandon its own theoretical understanding, social system and development path, and achieve the strategic goal of winning without fighting.
Reporter: At present, with the advent of the global media age, especially the development of emerging social media, the political game between major powers continues to intensify, and “cognitive domain symptoms” such as human psychological confusion, moral crisis, and loss of faith continue to emerge. What do you think are the characteristics of cognitive space confrontation?
Zeng Huafeng: I think there are three main characteristics: First, the security boundary of the national cognitive space is ambiguous. The national cognitive space is a boundless, invisible, shadowless, but not negligible space of interests and confrontation. Social public opinion and ideology are the main areas of competition in the cognitive space, and spiritual information is the main weapon. Wherever spiritual information can be spread, it can become a battlefield for cognitive space competition. Second, the information attack and defense of the national cognitive space is manipulable. The reception, processing and feedback of spiritual information are not only closely related to the function of the human brain, but also have distinct national and ethnic characteristics. At the same time, spiritual information is prone to distortion in the process of dissemination and diffusion. In the era of global media, individuals are both recipients and publishers of information. Theoretically, any individual or group can instantly spread the specific information they process and produce in the world and have an impact on specific target objects. Third, the strategic confrontation in the national cognitive space is persistent. The role of spiritual information needs to be carried out step by step, and we cannot expect to produce immediate results. For example, during the Cold War, Western countries led by the United States gradually infiltrated Western values into socialist countries such as the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe through cultural exchanges and other activities, achieving the goal of peaceful evolution. Today, Western hostile forces seek to instill and infiltrate Western “democratic” and “free” ideas and values through various academic exchanges in politics, economy, science, culture, etc., in normal information interaction activities.
The main way the West seizes national cognitive space and competes for “brain control”
Reporter: What are the main ways the West seizes national cognitive space and competes for “brain control”?
Zeng Huafeng: I think there are four main ways. The first is perception manipulation. Perception manipulation is also called consciousness manipulation. It aims to manipulate the behavior of others by influencing their psychology and spirit. It can be directed at individuals, groups, a country, or even the whole world. In his book “War and Anti-War”, Toffler summarized the tools of perception manipulation into six aspects: one is “accusation of atrocities”, including condemnation of real and false atrocities; the second is “exaggerating the interests of a battle or a war”; the third is “demonizing or dehumanizing the enemy”; the fourth is “polarization”, that is, if you don’t support us, you are against us; the fifth is “claiming to obey God’s will”, which has a strong religious color; the sixth is “super propaganda-propaganda that is enough to discredit the propaganda of the other party.”
The second is to cut off historical memory. Human thought and social ideology are always closely linked to historical memory. Whether it is the spiritual world of an individual or the cultural traditions of a country or nation, figuratively speaking, they are all concentrated pasts and treasures worth cherishing. Once the historical memory of an individual or group is cleverly cut off through some means, making them lose their spiritual home, the obstacles to the infiltration of their values and ideologies are removed, opening the door for the invasion of various erroneous and chaotic ideas.
The third is to change the thinking paradigm. A country and a nation have their own specific thinking paradigm, which is the premise for people to understand the world. Especially for the social elite, their thinking paradigm and ideological cognition play a leading role in the thoughts, values and ideological identity of the whole society. However, people’s rational thinking has weaknesses. Through manipulation, “virus programs” can be instilled into it, prompting people to deviate from obvious facts and accept fallacies and sometimes even absurd conclusions. Once this set of practices seizes the social elite group, most people will lose their ability to resist manipulation. At the end of the Cold War, the Western ideological attack on the Soviet Union was to influence the rational thinking of some Soviet economists, let them make a series of public speeches in the Soviet Union that catered to Western intentions, and covertly “persuaded” the Soviet people to abandon their own country’s social system and national culture, and to welcome the so-called “new era” of Western civilization with a “thorough”, “unconditional” and “bold” attitude.
Fourth, deconstruct symbols. Symbols are born in the historical evolution of national culture. Different nations have formed their own specific symbols in the course of their respective cultural development, such as clothing, anniversaries, monuments, rituals, and characters. With the help of empathy, a nation has some great symbols, which gives it an emotional bond that unites the society. It can arouse people’s sense of belonging, so that people can unite for a common dream and create and continue a new civilization. If someone deliberately repaints and attacks the symbols in the history of a country and nation, by reversing right and wrong, publicly mocking and making fun of the glorious achievements, great figures and noble culture in history, the consequences will be very serious, and it will lead to people gradually losing their sense of identity with the country, nation and self.
Providing strong support for maintaining national cognitive space security
Reporter: Faced with fierce competition in the field of national cognitive space security, how should we maintain national cognitive space security?
Zeng Huafeng: We must fully understand and grasp the characteristics and laws of national cognitive space security, firmly occupy the ideological position, and take the initiative in the field of public opinion and ideology.
First, we must strengthen our ideals and beliefs and build a strong spiritual pillar. History and reality have repeatedly proved that the collapse of a regime often begins in the ideological field. Once the ideological defense line is breached, it will be difficult to defend other defense lines. Whether we can hold on to the ideological position and do a good job in ideological work is related to national cohesion and centripetal force. In this regard, we must always hold high the banner of ideals and beliefs and unswervingly adhere to and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics.
Second, we must be vigilant against the emergence of historical nihilism. Historical nihilism originated with the denial of the “Cultural Revolution” and reform and opening up, and then gradually moved towards the denial of the historical view of historical materialism and the denial of the cultural traditions of the Chinese nation. We must be highly vigilant against its harm, and clearly oppose historical nihilism, oppose all pseudo-historical narratives that glorify aggression and oppression and vilify revolution and resistance, face history sincerely, cherish the subjectivity established by the Chinese nation in the long course of the Chinese revolution, and enhance the self-esteem and self-confidence of the Chinese nation, so as to lay a solid cultural foundation for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
Third, we should seek national cultural identity in the collision between Chinese and Western cultures. While promoting military and economic hegemony, the United States actively promotes cultural hegemony. Under the banner of “economic integration”, it strongly impacts the heterogeneous cultures of various countries and tries to influence other countries’ cultures with American culture. In this context, in the process of cultural exchanges with other countries and nations in the world, we should not only continue to absorb and integrate the essence of the cultures of all nations in the world, but also enhance our national cultural consciousness and confidence, and improve the creativity and vitality of national culture in the process of continuous inheritance.
Fourth, we should actively participate in the global governance of cyberspace security. In the Internet era, the United States, with its high-tech monopoly advantage, not only controls the management of the cyber world, but is also the first country in the world to propose the concept of cyber warfare and apply it in actual combat. From the current perspective, the United States’ control over the Internet will not change in the short term. We should pay close attention to cyberspace security, actively participate in the global governance of cyberspace security, and build a cybersecurity system that conforms to the trend of globalization and meets the requirements of my country’s informatization, so as to provide strong support for maintaining the security of the national cognitive space.
We must promote the information construction of our army with a broader vision. Indulging in reflection on the characteristics, patterns and experiences of the last war is a chronic disease and common disease in human military history. From the time when information warfare was proposed to the present, people have been conducting research on its characteristics, laws and tactics, but have overlooked a problem: that is, with the development of modern science and technology, is the so-called information warfare what people are talking about today? In fact, we should have a broader vision for understanding information warfare, and include physical information, biological information and spiritual information into the framework of information warfare. From the aspects of basic research, applied research, combat theory, technology development, equipment development and organizational leadership, we should build a system of cognitive space attack and defense confrontation. Innovate the ways, methods and means of ideological and political work in the global media era. Cultivate and create a team of high-quality talents who can grasp the frontiers of cognitive science, psychology and military needs, and seize the “brain control” of future information warfare. (
Strengthening the construction of military rule of law culture
■Wang Mei
introduction
President Xi stressed that we should carry forward the spirit of socialist rule of law and strive to cultivate socialist rule of law culture. Military rule of law culture, as an important component of socialist rule of law culture, is the spiritual support for the practice of military rule of law construction, and has important functions such as ideological enlightenment, behavior regulation and cultural nourishment. In the new era and new journey, we should regard strengthening the construction of military rule of law culture as a strategic and basic work for building a military rule of law system with Chinese characteristics, and provide a strong ideological guarantee and spiritual motivation for the in-depth implementation of the strategy of ruling the army by law.
Fully recognize the status and role of military rule of law culture construction
Culture is the product of human thinking and behavior, and in turn shapes human thinking and behavior. Military rule of law culture is an important component of building a military rule of law system with Chinese characteristics, and is also an important guarantee for mobilizing and stimulating the consciousness of military rule of law subjects.
Military rule of law culture is an important component of building a military rule of law system with Chinese characteristics. The military rule of law system with Chinese characteristics consists of a military legal system, a military rule of law implementation system, a military rule of law supervision system, and a military rule of law guarantee system. The military rule of law guarantee system mainly includes military rule of law organizations, military law governance theory, military legal talent teams, and military rule of law culture, providing organizational guarantees, theoretical support, talent support, and cultural nourishment for the construction of military rule of law. Military rule of law culture is closely related to other subsystems in the military rule of law system, and permeates the contents of these subsystems in the form of people, objects, information and other elements. In addition, the rule of law is not only a way of governing the army, but also a value choice, cultural thought, and spiritual power. The rule of law culture of the people’s army is embedded with the value standards of allocating power and responsibility and balancing rights and obligations. It is a culture that demonstrates the purpose of serving the people wholeheartedly. To comprehensively promote the rule of law in the army, it is necessary to lead and guide all aspects of the military rule of law construction with the core values of socialism and the core values of contemporary revolutionary soldiers, so that it can better reflect the national value goals, social value orientation, citizen value standards, and military personnel value requirements.
Military rule of law culture is an important guarantee for mobilizing and inspiring the consciousness of military rule of law subjects. Culture is created by people, and in turn cultivates, shapes and changes people, playing a vital role in guiding and supporting the all-round development of people. The realization of the rule of law depends on the foundation and power of the rule of law culture, and on the sincere recognition, sincere support and conscious practice of various subjects. Officers and soldiers are the main body of the army. The construction of the rule of law in the army needs officers and soldiers to promote it, and various laws and regulations need to be implemented by officers and soldiers. Strengthening the construction of military rule of law culture, strengthening officers and soldiers’ belief in and thinking of the rule of law, and improving officers and soldiers’ legal literacy and ability to handle affairs in accordance with the law are important aspects of deepening the rule of law in the army and strict management of the army. Strengthening the construction of military rule of law culture can create a good rule of law environment and establish a clear direction throughout the army that laws must be followed, laws must be strictly enforced, and violations must be punished, so that officers and soldiers always maintain awe of laws and regulations and military discipline, firmly establish the concept that legal red lines cannot be touched and legal bottom lines cannot be crossed, cultivate the habit of using rule of law thinking to think about problems, handle matters, and solve problems, and inspire the enthusiasm, initiative, consciousness and creativity of the majority of military personnel to participate in the construction of military rule of law.
Accurately grasp the contemporary requirements of building a military rule of law culture
To strengthen the construction of military rule of law culture, we should accurately grasp and highlight the basic characteristics of military culture construction, such as its political nature, people-oriented nature, moral nature, practical nature, and innovative nature, adhere to the corresponding work principles and requirements, and ensure that the construction of military rule of law culture is comprehensively guided and always followed.
Highlight the political nature of the construction of military rule of law culture. The rule of law is a way to express and distribute the interests of specific interest groups. The distinct political nature of the construction of military rule of law culture is closely related to and organically unified with the party’s nature and the people’s nature. To strengthen the construction of military rule of law culture, we must adhere to the party’s absolute leadership over the people’s army, thoroughly implement Xi Jinping’s thoughts on strengthening the military, thoroughly implement Xi Jinping’s thoughts on the rule of law and President Xi’s important expositions on ruling the military according to law, deeply understand the decisive significance of the “two establishments”, enhance the “four consciousnesses”, strengthen the “four self-confidences”, and achieve the “two safeguards”, implement the responsibility system of the Chairman of the Military Commission, and ensure that the construction of military rule of law culture is always promoted in the correct political direction.
Highlight the people-oriented nature of the military rule of law culture construction. Military personnel, especially officers and soldiers, are the main body of the military rule of law culture construction. The construction of the military rule of law culture must adhere to the people-centered approach, adhere to the subject status of officers and soldiers, mobilize and stimulate the various cultural needs of officers and soldiers, and provide basic support and create favorable conditions for meeting the needs. By improving the military rule of law system with Chinese characteristics that meets the only fundamental standard of combat effectiveness, we can improve the level of legalization of national defense and military construction, promote the generation and improvement of combat effectiveness and fully release it, and ensure the realization of the fundamental purpose of the people’s army to serve the people wholeheartedly.
Highlight the morality of military rule of law culture construction. “Law brings peace to the world, and virtue nourishes people’s hearts.” A distinctive feature of the rule of law path of socialism with Chinese characteristics is to insist on combining rule of law with rule of virtue, emphasizing that both rule of law and rule of virtue should be grasped with both hands and both hands should be strong. To fully implement the strategy of ruling the military by law, it is necessary to implement moral requirements into the construction of the rule of law, attach importance to the normative role of law, and embody moral concepts through the rule of law; attach importance to the educational role of morality, and nourish the spirit of the rule of law with morality, so as to realize that law and morality complement each other, and rule of law and rule of virtue complement each other.
Highlight the practicality of the construction of military rule of law culture. The process of cultural innovation and development is the process of constantly answering new issues raised by the times and practice. In order to turn the “law on paper” into the real and vivid “law in action” in real life, and to turn the “blueprint” of the construction of military rule of law culture into a real and tangible “high-rise building” in real life, we must pay attention to the unity of knowledge and action, guide and promote through the specific work of the construction of military rule of law culture, and rely on the universal, regular and long-term practice of the construction of military rule of law culture by relevant subjects, so as to guide the majority of military personnel to become loyal advocates, conscious abiders and firm defenders of the military rule of law with Chinese characteristics.
Highlight the innovation of the construction of military rule of law culture. Military rule of law culture is constantly gaining vitality and vigor in the process of evolution, development and continuous innovation. The construction of military rule of law culture should uphold an open and inclusive attitude, fully learn from and absorb the outstanding achievements of human rule of law civilization, and enhance the international influence and voice of the military rule of law culture with Chinese characteristics; adhere to inheritance and development, keep integrity and innovation, rely on the use of new technologies, new platforms, new models and new mechanisms, and continuously develop and prosper, spread and carry forward the military rule of law culture content in China’s excellent traditional military culture and socialist advanced culture, and promote the further creative transformation and innovative development of military rule of law culture.
Ideas and measures to comprehensively strengthen the construction of military rule of law culture
To strengthen the construction of military rule of law culture, we should insist on the coordinated efforts in the construction of military rule of law culture in spiritual form, institutional form, and material form, and effectively adopt ideas and measures that cover both goals and tasks and include implementation paths, and have their own focuses and are mutually integrated.
Strengthen the spiritual form of military rule of law culture. Thought is the forerunner of behavior, and theory is the guide to action. Military law governance theory and military rule of law thinking are both requirements and indicators for the construction of military rule of law culture, and are also important contents of the construction of military rule of law culture. We should strengthen the research on military law governance theory, support it with discipline construction, promote the research and interpretation of the military rule of law system with Chinese characteristics, convince people with thorough theories, and give play to the guiding role of theoretical identification on emotional identification and behavioral identification. We should strengthen the rule of law thinking of military personnel, thoroughly study, publicize and implement Xi Jinping’s thoughts on the rule of law, deepen the rule of law education and training of the entire army, incorporate the goals, objects, system, content and methods of education and training into the track of the rule of law, let the thinking of respecting rules, the thinking of rights and obligations, the thinking of limiting power and governing power, and the thinking of justice and science take root in their minds, and make respecting and practicing the rule of law the way of thinking, working and living of military personnel, especially leading cadres.
Strengthen the military rule of law culture in the form of system. Only by formulating scientific systems and making them run smoothly can the value orientation of the rule of law culture be established and consolidated. We should strengthen the construction of the military legal system, adhere to scientific legislation, democratic legislation, and legislation in accordance with the law, fully reflect the interests of the people and the standards of combat effectiveness in the legal system, establish institutional rules and clear directions that laws must be followed, laws must be strictly enforced, and violations must be investigated, and create a persuasive and credible cultural form. The military legal system should run smoothly, and in the implementation, supervision, and guarantee of military rule of law, we should establish the prestige of the rule of law, cultivate integrity, and lead a new style. We must attach importance to the activities of creating a rule of law military camp and jointly building the rule of law between the military and the local government as an important starting point, take safeguarding national defense and military interests, and the legitimate rights and interests of military personnel and their families in accordance with the law as a breakthrough point, and enhance the military personnel’s experience of the rule of law in laws, regulations, and their operation.
Strengthen the military rule of law culture in material form. Military rule of law cannot be separated from a solid material foundation, and institutional and spiritual culture cannot be separated from solid material conditions. To this end, the construction of military rule of law facilities should be strengthened, including facilities related to all elements and processes of rule of law such as legislation, law enforcement, judicial affairs, legal governance research, education and training, such as venues and items for legal publicity and education. The rule of law information platform should be expanded, and hardware and software construction should be improved. We should enrich cultural products, comprehensively use traditional methods as well as technologies such as artificial intelligence and virtual reality, tell good stories about military rule of law, let military rule of law elements and figurative cultural symbols permeate and permeate the military environment, enable military personnel to always be in the information field and strong atmosphere of military rule of law, be influenced by what they see and hear, and constantly enhance their awareness of respecting, learning, abiding by and using the law.
(Author’s unit: College of Military Management, National Defense University)
● Cognitive domain warfare focuses on full-dimensional attacks, including both cognitive penetration in “peacetime” and cognitive coercion in “wartime”.
● Wartime cognitive domain operations are carried out around the achievement of military objectives, and are implemented in coordination with military operations and support each other.
●In cognitive domain warfare, as the sound of gunfire fades away, the clarion call for a new round of cognitive domain warfare may sound again, and there can be no slackness.
Cognitive domain operations are confrontations conducted at the level of consciousness and thinking. Through selective processing and transmission of information, it influences judgments, changes concepts, and competes for people’s hearts, thereby guiding the reality to develop in a direction that is beneficial to oneself. From the perspective of cognitive shaping, cognitive domain operations focus on full-dimensional attacks, including both cognitive penetration in “peacetime” and cognitive coercion in “wartime”. Therefore, cognitive domain operations do not have a clear boundary between peace and war; at the same time, according to the needs of political or military purposes, its targets can be individuals, organizations, and even countries. Therefore, cognitive domain operations should establish the concept of peacetime and wartime integration, military-civilian integration, cross-domain integration, and joint victory, and sort out basic tasks accordingly.
Focus on the layout tasks of ideology
Ideology is “a system of thought that systematically and consciously reflects the social and economic forms and political systems”. Ideology determines the rational foundation of cognition and has distinct camp characteristics. Although ideology covers all aspects of social life, in the confrontation between countries or political groups, the struggle around belief guidance, attitude acquisition, and concept assimilation is particularly fierce, becoming the focus of cognitive domain operations.
Shaping and guiding political cognition, seizing the initiative to break and establish beliefs. The confrontation between countries or political groups is not only a confrontation of national strength, but also a confrontation of national will, and the confrontation of political beliefs bears the brunt. Shaping and guiding political cognition aims to consolidate or destroy political consensus, strengthen or shake political beliefs, and expand or disintegrate political camps. In cognitive domain operations, through the cognitive guidance of various aspects such as the legitimacy of the ruling party, the rationality of political ideas and systems, and the health of the political ecology, cultivate feelings such as recognition or denial, support or hatred of political positions, beliefs, and practices, and lay a political cognitive layout that is beneficial to oneself and detrimental to the enemy. Political cognition is related to the survival foundation of a country or organization, and is the primary focus of cognitive domain operations.
Shape and guide war cognition, seize the leadership of war attitude. A country can live without war but cannot live without war awareness. War cognition is the basis for the formation and development of will, concept, psychology, and thinking of individuals, organizations, and countries in the war cycle. Through the guidance of cognition of the nature, properties, and legal concepts of war, it is a key issue to build a war cognition thinking system, guide the evaluation trend of the rationality, justice, and legitimacy of war, promote the formation of support or opposition to the possible war, and regulate the fluctuation of the willingness to assume war obligations. War cognition affects war attitude, and the struggle for control over it is a task that must be taken seriously in cognitive domain operations.
Shape and guide value cognition, and seize the control of emotional will. Values affect people’s judgment of beauty, ugliness, right and wrong, and social behavior orientation. In terms of identifying things and judging right and wrong, people’s emotions always tend to support propositions with similar values. Value cognition permeates every corner of life. Through the dissemination of ethical and moral concepts, standards of beauty, ugliness, good and evil, and literary and artistic viewpoints, the competition for the right to guide value concepts, the right to guide life patterns, and the right to judge traditional inheritance is frequent and fierce. In real life, different values often penetrate and entangle with each other. The essence of shaping and guiding value cognition is to strive for the recognition of social emotions, which is a regular task of cognitive domain operations.
Focus on the social psychology of the task of creating momentum
Social psychology provides a perceptual and experiential basis for cognition, and it is formed on the basis of daily life, social activities, practical insights, etc. Social psychological guidance often promotes unpredictable changes in the real situation. It is one of the common modes of confrontation between the two sides, especially in non-military conflict periods, and it is also a task that must be taken seriously in cognitive domain operations.
Guide national psychology and regulate national emotions. National psychology is one of the social psychology that is most likely to cause conflict and confrontation. Attacking national self-esteem can breed national inferiority complex and easily split and disperse. Improving national self-esteem can enhance national cohesion, but the expansion of national self-esteem can easily lead to extreme racism, national chauvinism, etc.; the differences in status, interests, culture, customs, and life among different ethnic groups within the country provide opportunities for people with ulterior motives to stir up national confrontation, while the same living space and cooperation process lay the foundation for eliminating prejudice and even cohesion and tolerance among ethnic groups. The result depends on cognitive guidance. National psychological guidance is sensitive and easy to get out of control, which has a direct impact on social stability. It is a task that needs to be focused on in cognitive domain operations.
Guide group psychology and increase or decrease opposition awareness. Groups generally refer to people of the same kind, such as ethnic groups, regions, classes, professional groups, and even civil groups, non-governmental organizations, etc. If groups are subjectively defined based on the standard of “convergence”, then the “differences” between groups exist objectively. This difference may be political or economic status, or it may be cultural ideas, regional concepts, or other. Guiding the cognition of differences to promote the opposition psychology of different groups such as party opposition, regional opposition, professional opposition, and rich-poor opposition will not only damage the internal unity of the country, but also accumulate and increase the dissatisfaction of all sectors of society with the political authorities, laying the groundwork for instigating social unrest and division. In cognitive domain operations, attention needs to be paid to this kind of social psychology.
Guiding individual psychology and influencing social emotions. In cognitive domain operations, individual psychological guidance is divided into two situations. One is the psychological guidance of important figures, such as sensitive professionals, social intellectuals, academic elites, successful business people, etc. The struggle for their political stance, emotional attitude, etc. is an issue that both sides of the confrontation need to focus on. The other is the use of phenomena that easily trigger individual psychological resonance. For example, in public crises, major accidents, natural disasters, and even some criminal incidents and emergencies in life, intentionally guiding certain emotions may cause group polarization due to the individual’s herd effect, thereby causing changes in public opinion and even social unrest. Both aspects are content that cognitive domain operations need to pay attention to.
Targeting the critical task of wartime cognition
Cognitive domain operations precede military operations and end with them. In wartime, cognitive domain operations are carried out around the achievement of military objectives, coordinated with military operations, and mutually supportive, with the characteristics of violent coercion. In this stage of cognitive domain operations, “offensive” and “defensive” actions are carried out simultaneously, with the combined effects of weapons and propaganda, and the emergence of “enticement”, “attack”, “cheating”, and “control”. This is the key stage of cognitive domain operations.
Attack the enemy’s mind and induce cognition. Cognitive attacks in wartime are mainly carried out to weaken the enemy’s will to resist and induce the enemy to make wrong decisions. Targeted attacks are used to shake the enemy’s will to resist and front-line commanders and fighters, and information deception interference is used to induce decision-making; for armed forces, which are mainly military forces, the use of force to deter and deter is dominant, and the use of public opinion warfare and other style actions and emerging technical means are used to shake their belief in participating in the war, cause panic, undermine their military morale, and dominate their action patterns; for social support forces, strong information is delivered through large-scale military exercises, equipment tests, and propaganda on the lethality of weapons to undermine confidence, induce panic through selective target strikes and the dissemination of battle conditions, and seek understanding through publicity of one’s own humanitarian actions in the war and related international comments.
Build a strong defense line, gather hearts and minds to control the situation. The focus of cognitive defense in wartime is to build a strong defense line of “heart”, “will” and “intelligence” to prevent the loss of fighting spirit under the stimulation of drastic changes in the situation or environment. Education and publicity are the basic ways of cognitive defense in wartime. For the participating forces, stimulate enthusiasm for participation through mobilization and incentives, clarify the truth by refuting rumors, establish the belief in victory by publicizing the results of the war, mobilize morale by setting up models, etc.; for the supporting forces, establish a sense of mission, responsibility and obligation for the whole people through education and publicity on the justice, rationality and legality of the war, stimulate the psychology of common hatred of the enemy by exposing the enemy’s brutal behavior, and stimulate enthusiasm for supporting operations by publicizing the deeds of local participation in the war and supporting the front, etc.
Expand the camp and eliminate hidden dangers. Creating a favorable cognitive atmosphere and providing support for the expansion of one’s own camp is an important aspect of cognitive domain operations during wartime that must be done. In particular, although the pursuit of international support forces is mainly based on political and diplomatic activities, the widespread spread of one’s own positions, ideas, attitudes, etc. often leads to changes in international civil attitudes, which in turn affects decision-making at the political level and provides support for the expansion of one’s own camp. In addition, cognitive domain operations during wartime have an important task that runs through the entire war, that is, to eliminate the adverse hidden dangers caused by various accidents in the war. Especially in the later stages of the war, as the destructive effects of the war appear and spread, people’s cognitive systems will inevitably be repeatedly impacted by different information. During this period, ideological guidance, social psychological shaping, and individual psychological counseling are needed to ensure the consolidation of the results of the war. In cognitive domain operations, as the sound of gunfire dissipates, the horn of a new round of cognitive domain operations may sound again, and there must be no slackness.
In order to thoroughly implement President Xi’s decision to “promote the implementation of the national big data strategy” and accelerate the development of military intelligence, our military has begun to take active actions. The innovative application of military big data will surely stimulate data vitality, release data value, and produce a multiplier effect like never before, so as to open the door to future victory.
In order to actively adapt to the new situation and new requirements, promote the deep integration of big data and national defense construction, and promote exchanges and cooperation among experts in the field of military big data research, the Second Military Big Data Forum, hosted by the Academy of Military Sciences and themed “Military Big Data Promotes the Development of Military Intelligence”, was held in Beijing from August 22 to 23 this year. More than 500 leaders, experts and representatives from the Central Military Commission, various theater commands, various services, the Academy of Military Sciences, the National Defense University, the National University of Defense Technology and other units participated in the discussion and exchange on the frontier, common and hot issues of the development of military big data.
During the forum, our reporter interviewed Researcher Liu Linshan, Director of the Military Science Information Research Center of the Academy of Military Sciences, Researcher Lu Bin, Deputy Director, and Associate Researcher Luo Wei, Director of a research laboratory, on topics related to military big data.
Military big data is highly confrontational
Reporter: my country is currently vigorously promoting the implementation of the national big data strategy. Big data is being widely used in many fields such as economy, politics, security and social management, reflecting unprecedented great value. So, compared with civilian big data, what are the connotations and characteristics of military big data?
Liu Linshan: With the development of big data technology and applications, military big data has broken through the concept of military data in the past and has become a general term for a series of activities based on massive military data resources, with data intelligent processing and analysis technology as the core, and driven by the extensive application needs in the military field. In view of the particularity of military activities, in addition to the typical characteristics of civilian big data such as large data scale, multiple content types, high processing speed, and low value density, military big data also has the characteristics of “one super, one high, and one strong”.
“One super” means super complexity. It means that the data comes from multiple spaces such as land, sea, air, space, electricity, and the Internet. The information dimension is higher, the unstructured characteristics are more obvious, and the data relationship is more complex. “One high” means high security, which means that the threats faced are complex, including enemy reconnaissance and theft, leakage of confidentiality by one’s own side, system vulnerabilities, and attacks by the enemy’s “soft” and “hard” means, etc., and the risk of weakening or losing availability is greater. “One strong” means strong confrontation, which means that the game confrontation between information acquisition and anti-acquisition means, the widespread existence of data fog disguise and deception, and the intricate interweaving of true and false data, which requires extremely high ability to distinguish the authenticity of data.
Lv Bin: Here we need to emphasize the “strong confrontational” characteristics of military big data. Since military big data is data in a confrontational environment, the data quality is poor, the value density is low, and it is usually uncertain, incomplete, and false. We know that artificial intelligence at this stage is mainly based on data-driven machine learning. Machine learning requires sample data, but the current war is small sample data, and future wars may not even have sample data. In addition, the characteristic of military operations is “man in the loop”, and human activities are difficult to learn and predict using classic big data methods. This makes military big data much more difficult than civilian big data in dealing with problems such as small sample data learning, game under incomplete and uncertain information, and scene modeling and understanding in complex environments. The challenges encountered are much greater, and new theories, new methods, and new technologies must be adopted to solve them.
Military big data and military intelligence complement each other
Reporter: The report of the 19th CPC National Congress emphasized the need to “accelerate the development of military intelligence and improve joint combat capabilities and all-domain combat capabilities based on network information systems.” How should we understand the relationship between military big data and military intelligence?
Liu Linshan: Looking back at the development of artificial intelligence, since it was first proposed at the Dartmouth Conference in 1956, it has experienced three climaxes and two troughs: the reasoning period, the knowledge period, and the learning period. Scientists have tried to “manufacture” human intelligence through logical reasoning, expert systems, etc., but the failure of the development of Japanese intelligent computers and the decline of the Encyclopedia of Human Common Sense Knowledge at Stanford University in the United States have made these paths unsustainable. The emergence of big data has provided a new path for the development of artificial intelligence, and people have begun to shift from how to “manufacture” intelligence to how to “learn” intelligence. Different from the traditional hope of achieving reasoning and learning through rules, logic and knowledge, through machine learning, we can gain insight into the hidden laws of massive data from big data, and effectively realize data-driven artificial intelligence. In March 2016, the “AlphaGo” Go robot developed by Google was able to defeat the world champion Lee Sedol based on the deep learning of neural networks based on 30 million chess records. In addition, the development of big data technology can also make up for the shortcomings of artificial intelligence in algorithms and computing power, and significantly improve its transferability and interpretability. It can be said that big data is the enabling factor of the new generation of artificial intelligence and is crucial to promoting the development of artificial intelligence.
Lv Bin: At present, artificial intelligence technology is accelerating its penetration into the military field. Military intelligence has become the core driving force of a new round of military reforms, profoundly changing the winning mechanism, force structure and combat methods of future wars. Military intelligence is not just a simple superposition of artificial intelligence and military, but also a systematic description of the coordinated operation of people, equipment and combat methods under a new combat form. The key to the operation of the system is inseparable from the efficient acquisition, integration, analysis and interaction of data. In the future, with the full penetration of data into the military field, deep interaction between man and machine, and the deep combination of machine intelligence and human wisdom, autonomous perception, autonomous analysis, autonomous decision-making and autonomous strikes centered on data and centered on data analysis and processing will be realized.
Luo Wei: We should also look at the relationship between the two from the perspective of the historical stage of our military construction and development. At present, our military has made significant progress in the transformation of military reforms with Chinese characteristics, but the task of mechanization construction has not been completed, and the level of informatization needs to be improved urgently. The development of military intelligence must not be a “castle in the air”. It must be built on the basis of mechanization and informatization, and at the same time, it must also focus on using intelligence to drive mechanization and informatization construction. The integrated development of the “three transformations” will be a significant feature of our military construction and development at present and in the future. Through the comprehensive sharing and efficient interaction of various types of data, the information data flow of the integration of the “three transformations” will be opened up, which will help to build the underlying channel of the integration of the “three transformations” and effectively enhance the quality and efficiency of the development of military intelligence.
Major military powers are rushing to build military big data
Reporter: Accelerating the development of military intelligence has become a common practice for the world’s military powers to seize the commanding heights of future military competition. So what is the progress of these countries in promoting the construction of military big data and the development of military intelligence? Please give a brief introduction.
Liu Linshan: Winning by technology has always been the main means for Western countries to seek advantages in the world. With the advent of the era of big data and artificial intelligence, major Western countries regard it as a “battlefield” and have successively introduced a series of strategic measures to strengthen overall planning. As early as March 2012, the US government issued the “Big Data Research and Development Program Initiative”, which advocated the joint efforts of six government departments and agencies including the Department of Defense to jointly promote the development of big data collection, storage, management and analysis technologies. In 2016, the “National Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Strategic Plan” was formulated to clarify the investment direction and focus of the United States in the field of artificial intelligence. In 2018, the “Department of Defense Artificial Intelligence Strategy” was issued, which proposed artificial intelligence development goals and measures, and unified planning and deployment of military applications of artificial intelligence. This year, a new version of the “Department of Defense Cloud Strategy” was formulated to accelerate the development of big data and artificial intelligence technologies and promote data sharing through unified supervision of the US military’s cloud construction. In order to coordinate the development of artificial intelligence technology and combat applications of the US military, the US Department of Defense has also established a joint artificial intelligence center to integrate relevant resources and plan investments. With the launch of the US Department of Defense’s “Military Cloud” 2.0 system, the US military has acquired data processing capabilities such as high-speed battlefield video processing, voice recognition, complex electromagnetic environment perception, and decryption, reducing processing time to one thousandth of traditional methods. Russia has formulated the “Russian Federation Science and Technology Development Strategy”, which prioritizes big data, machine learning, and artificial intelligence in scientific and technological innovation, and the Russian military has formulated the “Military Robot Technology and Application Development Plan”. The United Kingdom has listed big data, robots, and autonomous systems as eight priority development technologies, and the military has set up a special artificial intelligence laboratory to focus on the research of artificial intelligence and defense data science. France’s digital roadmap clearly states that big data is a strategic high-tech that must be strongly supported in the future. The military has formulated the “Artificial Intelligence and Innovation Roadmap”, which lists intelligence, decision-making, human-machine collaboration, robots, and cyber warfare as key development areas.
Luo Wei: In addition to strategic layout, major Western countries have continued to increase their research and development efforts in big data and artificial intelligence technologies to accelerate the transformation of technological achievements into combat capabilities. Since 2012, the US Department of Defense and its subordinate departments have implemented a series of big data research and development projects represented by the “X Data” project and the “Insight” project, mainly involving big data analysis and mining, rule discovery, data-driven model calculation, data visualization and other fields. Among them, the “X Data” project aims to develop new computing technologies and open source software tools for big data processing and analysis; the “Insight” project aims to integrate massive data from various sensors to form a comprehensive battlefield situation, quickly identify the source and degree of threats, and enhance the decision-making ability of troop commanders and staff. While continuing to promote technological development, some of the US military’s achievements have begun to form combat capabilities, among which the most typical is the “Algorithm Warfare” project. The project was launched in April 2017 and aims to use artificial intelligence algorithms to find targets of interest from massive video data. The relevant achievements have been deployed to multiple US military departments since December of that year, and their video intelligence analysis and processing capabilities have been improved.
Big data will play a vital role in future wars
Reporter: At present, military high-tech with information technology as the core is changing with each passing day, which is driving the evolution of war into information warfare, and intelligent warfare is beginning to emerge. So what role will big data play in future information and intelligent warfare? Please briefly explain.
Liu Linshan: In the future, both the continuously developing information warfare and the rapidly advancing intelligent warfare will be driven by data, which is mainly reflected in the following three aspects:
First, the understanding of battlefield situation depends on the collection and processing of massive data. Whoever can penetrate the “fog of war” and more accurately and comprehensively understand the enemy’s situation and the combat environment will be able to seize the initiative in the war. On the battlefield of the future, data is the basis for restoring the battlefield situation and forming the enemy’s situation. It not only includes the results of our own reconnaissance, surveillance, and intelligence activities, but also includes massive geographic information data, human social culture data, and social media data. At present, it is not easy to comprehensively collect and process this data, because with the continuous acceleration of the development of networked informatization in the whole society and the increasing popularity of various digital devices, the amount of data in the whole society continues to grow exponentially. Statistics show that in 2013, the total amount of data in human society was about 4.4 trillion GB, and by 2020, this number will grow to 44 trillion GB. With such a large amount of data, without the support of advanced big data collection and processing technology, the value of the data cannot be reflected, and the overall picture of the battlefield cannot be recognized.
Secondly, the realization of combat functions depends on the analysis, distribution and utilization of data. Combat functions usually include intelligence, command and control, firepower strikes, battlefield mobility, combat support, etc. Among them, the intelligence function focuses on collecting, compiling and pushing data, command and control focuses on integrating, processing and distributing data, and firepower strikes, battlefield mobility and combat support generate new status data while utilizing data. It can be said that the performance of combat functions and the implementation of combat operations are the process of data recycling. The smoother and faster the data circulation of one party is, the more significant the combat effect of that party will be.
Third, the evolution of joint operations depends largely on the level of data sharing. The U.S. military is currently evolving from joint operations to multi-domain operations, which is manifested in the development of the coordination of combat capabilities between military services to the aggregation of combat capabilities in various combat domains, thereby achieving a closer and more precise use of forces across military services on the basis of lower-level forces. The premise for achieving this goal is to use the “cloud” as a means to achieve the sharing of all combat data.
Lü Bin: As the role of data in future wars becomes more and more obvious, the characteristics of data weaponization will also become increasingly apparent. “Data warfare” in which one side prevents the opponent from obtaining its own data, prevents the opponent from forming a comprehensive situation, or creates and spreads false data, misleads the judgment of the opponent’s intelligent system, and hinders the opponent’s combat function will become an important combat style.
Actively embrace the era of military big data
Reporter: When it comes to future intelligent warfare, its important feature is that the tempo of confrontation has significantly accelerated. The winning factor has changed from being able to win to being fast. Whoever seizes the initiative will have the initiative in the war. As we welcome the arrival of the era of military big data, how should we understand its key role in future intelligent warfare?
Liu Linshan: The key to winning by speed is how to shorten the “OODA loop” chain as soon as possible. From the perspective of “observation”, big data technology can effectively help commanders fully grasp the situation, capture subtle changes, and discover major signs. From the perspective of “judgment”, the use of big data technology to analyze the correlation of multi-source data can accurately judge the battlefield situation, break the “battlefield fog”, and significantly enhance the commander’s judgment and acumen. From the perspective of “decision-making”, the real-time fusion processing and visualization of data such as enemy situation, our situation and battlefield environment can help commanders accurately control the battlefield situation in real time, make decisions quickly, adjust deployments quickly, and gain the speed advantage of planning and decision-making. From the perspective of “action”, based on real-time online big data analysis, commanders can accurately plan tasks, calculate troops and firepower, and accurately issue combat orders, so as to dynamically and efficiently control troop actions and accurately evaluate combat effectiveness.
Lu Bin: In addition to bringing revolutionary impact to command and control efficiency, big data will also accelerate the transformation of combat command system and lead the transformation of command decision-making mode. The first is the flattening of command system. Under the big data environment, information systems are seamlessly connected, cloud computing provides powerful computing power, blockchain technology improves system security, and the command structure can be changed from “tree-like” to “net-like”, providing a material basis for streamlining command structure and realizing flat command. The second is the jointness of military systems. Based on the highly shared data pool of big data, various types of data are integrated to ensure the consistency of information acquisition. Unified network infrastructure, consistent data structure and data exchange standards ensure effective interconnection and interoperability between various forces and elements, creating conditions for the formation of an integrated joint combat system. The third is the simplification of troop organization. The collection and processing of massive intelligence information is transmitted to the cloud through the information system network for processing, which can free commanders from heavy information processing and realize the streamlined action organization with efficient operation under the support of a large system.
Luo Wei: Military big data also plays an important enabling role in improving the level of equipment intelligence, promoting the birth of intelligent weapons and equipment, and improving intelligent support capabilities. As the “oil” of the new era, big data will be the life source and aorta of intelligent equipment. The rapid acquisition, fine processing and precise distribution of data based on super computing power are multipliers for the combat effectiveness of intelligent equipment. With the gradual breakthrough of key technologies, data equipment closely combined with data resources, computing resources, big data management and analysis systems will appear on the battlefield in the future, including giant platforms used to support military combat command, equipment management, and logistics distribution, as well as small and medium-sized data equipment based on aircraft carriers, aircraft, ships, submarines, vehicles, etc., and also micro-data equipment embedded in unmanned combat, single-soldier combat, and precision guidance systems. These data equipment will play the role of “smart engine” in future intelligent combat, training, logistics support and other operations. At the same time, it should be emphasized that big data going to the battlefield may change equipment and the form of war, but it cannot change the decisive factors of war. In the era of intelligent warfare, the key factor that determines the outcome of war is still people. Big data and artificial intelligence technology cannot completely replace people, and cannot change the decisive position of people in war.
Author: Sun Yixiang, Yu Yuanlai Abstract: The development and application of artificial intelligence technology has greatly changed the information dissemination and public opinion ecology, and also spawned the birth of “intelligent public opinion warfare”. Looking forward to the continued development of national discourse power and the technical competition behind the public opinion game of major powers, this article proposes the concept of “intelligent public opinion warfare” and interprets and analyzes its development prospects, application strategies and capacity building, aiming to explore the new frontiers, new games and new tactics of public opinion warfare in the era of intelligence, and provide theoretical reference for us to win the future public opinion battlefield.
Keywords: “intelligent public opinion warfare”; development prospects; application strategies; capacity building
“Intelligent public opinion warfare” is a new concept proposed based on the evolution of intelligent warfare forms and the development prospects of public opinion warfare. It is a new type of public opinion offensive and defensive action that uses new technologies and new applications in the field of artificial intelligence to spread political issues, derive discourse ecology, promote ideology, and influence public opinion. Its essence is to improve the speed, accuracy, intensity and breadth of information dissemination through the deep integration of disruptive technologies such as intelligent robots, deep learning, and algorithm recommendations with 5G, social media, big data, and the Internet of Things, thereby enabling traditional public opinion warfare to break through the “technical bottleneck” in core links such as situational awareness, target locking, information push, and effect evaluation, changing the phenomenon of weak targeting, limited aggregation, and weak controllability in some previous operations. It greatly exerts the “soft kill” effectiveness of attacking the mind and affecting cognition in response to the key and difficult problems such as high dependence on human intelligence and energy. The in-depth analysis of “intelligent public opinion warfare” aims to explore the new frontiers, new games, and new tactics of the development of public opinion warfare, and provide theoretical references for our army to build a new type of public opinion warfare force and win the future public opinion battlefield.
I. The development prospect of “intelligent public opinion warfare”
The essence of artificial intelligence is the simulation of human thinking. Its greatest advantage is to simulate, extend, and expand human intelligence. [1] Public opinion warfare takes media information attack and confrontation as its basic form, aiming to influence and persuade the target opponent and change his mental cognition. Its main “weapon platform” is various media for disseminating information. With the increasing maturity of artificial intelligence technology, the traditional media’s collection, writing, editing and broadcasting technologies have gradually been replaced by robot writers, algorithm recommendations, automatic broadcasting, audio-visual fitting, immersive news, etc. The subversive transformation of “weapon platforms” has also profoundly affected the development of public opinion warfare, making traditional public opinion warfare rapidly move towards a computable, modelable and predictable intelligent era. Various signs show that current intelligent technologies such as social robots, deep fakes, and big data analysis have been fully utilized in many major international events, and their influence on public opinion is becoming increasingly powerful.
(I) Artificial intelligence leads new changes in communication methods
Although current intelligent robots cannot fundamentally replace people as the main body of information dissemination, the information production and dissemination model of “artificial templates + automated data filling” and intelligent recommendation algorithms have become a bridge for more accurate docking between media and audiences. In addition, the in-depth popularization of software and hardware such as smart phones, smart chips, smart writing, virtual anchors, and AI editing has led to the global media industry actively seeking how to perfectly combine professional advantages with the efficient capabilities of artificial intelligence. For example, the robot Heliograf used by The Washington Post can automatically generate stories based on real-time data sources to provide audiences with personalized news. The robot Blossomblot used by the New York Times can screen and disseminate potential hot articles by analyzing social media data. [2] There are also writing software such as Kuaibi Xiaoxin used by Xinhua News Agency, Dreamwriter of Tencent, and Xiaomingbot of Toutiao. It is precisely based on the strong drive of technologies such as artificial intelligence, mobile Internet, big data, and blockchain that today’s media ecology has begun to develop from all-media and integrated media to smart media. [3] News push methods represented by algorithms and news production methods represented by robot news have become new features and changes in the development of the global communication field.
(II) Intelligent media gives new efficiency to public opinion manipulation
As an online social information dissemination system that combines artificial intelligence and human intelligence, intelligent media can create topics, attract fans, increase traffic, and continuously increase the influence and control of public opinion by creating virtual opinion leaders, analyzing user preferences with algorithms, innovating content distribution rules, and automatically publishing information in batches. At the same time, it can also carry out continuous and in-depth ideological penetration and public opinion influence, and intervene in the basic judgment and general cognition of the public. For example, during the 2016 US presidential election, Facebook used algorithms to construct user portraits and design software programs to predict and interfere with voters’ voting intentions and behaviors, and conduct political manipulation. It is precisely because of the remarkable characteristics of these intelligent media news production, personalized news release, on-the-spot news experience, and sensory interactive feedback that the “post-truth”, “information cocoon”, “echo chamber effect”, “spiral of silence”, “group polarization” and other phenomena in the public opinion field have become more prominent under human manipulation, which also provides new ways to win for all parties fighting in the public opinion battlefield. At present, in the process of producing massive press releases, intelligent media has developed into an important force for spreading political and military issues and conducting public opinion manipulation. According to the report of the “Computational Propaganda Research Project” of the Oxford Internet Institute, as of 2019, more than 50 countries in the world have found the use of robot water army to manipulate public opinion.
(III) Modern warfare highlights the new prospect of controlling public opinion with intelligence
Modern warfare has expanded from the tangible battlefield of the traditional physical domain to the intangible battlefield of the information domain and cognitive domain. Artificial intelligence technology gives state institutions great potential to manipulate public opinion quickly, cheaply and on a large scale, which also leads to the continued intensification of threats and challenges brought by new forms of warfare such as hybrid warfare and multi-domain warfare. Using intelligent communication means to efficiently spread emotional cognition, values and opinions that are beneficial to oneself has become an important “booster” for achieving political and military goals in modern warfare. In this regard, former US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper once said: “The country that takes the lead in using artificial intelligence will have a decisive advantage on the battlefield for a long time in the future, so we must do it first.” For a long time, the US military has used a large number of false identities (i.e. “vests”) of “online virtual identity management” software to participate in chats or post on major social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to create pro-American remarks. Due to the low error rate and fully automated production, these robot water armies quickly became an important tool for influencing public opinion. In 2014, the US government also invested 760 million yuan to hire advertising companies to implement intelligent public opinion warfare specifically to combat targets such as al-Qaeda and the Somali Youth Party. In recent years, from major public opinion crises in Venezuela, Iran and other countries to the Syrian War and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it has become the norm to use social robots, deep fakes, virtual propaganda and other intelligent communication technologies and means to influence public opinion, and the “intelligent public opinion war” has gradually moved from behind the scenes to the front stage, showing a strong momentum of controlling public opinion with intelligence and winning with public opinion.
Application strategy of “intelligent public opinion war”
The mechanism of “intelligent public opinion war” is: with the help of machine learning, deeply explore the audience’s emotions and prejudices, screen and lock the most susceptible audiences, and then use algorithms to produce massive persuasive content, which is then flooded, disseminated and forwarded in batches by online news aggregators, corporate customer service robots, etc., thereby destroying the original international discourse system and communication ecology, and achieving the purpose of manipulating public opinion. The subject, object, topic, content, means and other key elements of its public opinion war are highly dependent on the empowerment and efficiency of intelligent technology. Nowadays, major countries are actively seeking to seize the dominant discourse power and win the initiative in the war of public opinion through intelligent “technological gap”. The main strategies used are:
(I) Cultivating virtual communication subjects
The implementation subjects of traditional public opinion warfare include not only propaganda departments, media organizations, think tanks, but also press spokespersons, opinion leaders and ordinary netizens. Intelligent technology has expanded this subject to a large number of “human-machine mobs” such as writing robots, dialogue robots, virtual bloggers and water armies, and has shown a blowout trend worldwide. According to the US “Capsule” website, the “2016 Machine Traffic Report” released by the Internet security company IMPV stated that they analyzed the access records of 100,000 domain names worldwide and found that about 52% of the Internet traffic came from “automated programs”, that is, robots. The Pew Research Center in the United States also found in a 2018 survey that 66% of the 1.2 million Twitter posts linking to 2,315 popular websites collected from various social media platforms were shared by robots. There is also the “troll army” created by Russia, which deploys a large number of robot virtual accounts. Its Internet Research Bureau can push out 25,000 tweets within 24 hours. These emerging forces have led to the continued intensification of the “asymmetric” situation of public opinion wars between countries. Studies have shown that people’s ideas are easily influenced by the information they see online, and the comments made by robots on social networks can often have an important impact on their ideas.
(II) Deeply dig and lock in the target audience
The target audience is the target of public opinion wars, and quickly identifying the social characteristics, position tendencies and lifestyles of the target audience will help improve the ability to target attacks based on the cultural psychology of the audience, and actively shape and change the group cognition of the target object. The “cloud brain” built with intelligent algorithms can deeply analyze the user’s reception needs and interest trends, summarize behavioral models, depict user portraits, discover internal laws, and determine the most accurate content, best time, and best path for information push, thereby improving the accuracy and effectiveness of precise segmentation and differentiated communication. At the same time, by grasping the differentiated needs of the target audience through intelligent technology, it is also possible to realize the intelligent construction of different communities and circles from content production to distribution, so as to match the value orientation of different audience groups and meet their personalized needs. Such communication advantages help to better integrate diverse and scattered viewpoints and quickly gather the leading opinions of public opinion. At present, in addition to intelligent social media, smart cars, smart shopping platforms, etc. have become important platforms for user information collection. According to the data provided by these platforms, it is easy to draw key social structures, human maps, as well as key influencers and opinion leaders, which also makes the target of public opinion war more accurate and more efficient.
(III) Automatic aggregation of hot topics
Setting topics is an important link in strengthening public opinion control. Intelligent technology strengthens the mining, aggregation and sharing functions of hot topics in massive information, so that the human factors in the fermentation process of public opinion continue to rise, and the breeding and development of public opinion are more likely to develop in the direction expected by the manipulator. On the one hand, big data mining news clues can quickly refine, edit and publish topics that attract public attention and trigger public discussion. For example, the US NewsWhip uses big data mining technology to scan major global social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram every two minutes to capture what events are the hottest and what content is more popular. It then analyzes the development trends of these contents and converts them into actionable suggestions to help media professionals plan topics based on clues. [4] On the other hand, intelligent communication media can enable different information products such as audio, video, images, and text to be freely matched and shared in the form of data information flow on wearable devices, cloud terminals, websites, and related social media, which further intensifies the aggregation and influence of hot public opinion.
(IV) Using algorithms to generate content
As the “ammunition” of public opinion warfare, information content has a distinct direction, pertinence, and strong topicality. Its planning, production, and packaging are mainly based on political and military objectives, rather than pure news value or commercial value. As the node between data information and artificial intelligence, algorithms play a key role in constructing traffic entrances and capturing user stickiness. For example, the algorithm distribution mechanism used by most current news apps and social media platforms can capture and analyze natural information such as the user’s age, gender, occupation, and cultural level, as well as behavioral information such as contact duration, contact frequency, and contact motivation during reading, through machine learning, to achieve accurate user portraits. At the same time, various “news materials” are collaged according to instructions and pushed to these pre-targeted target audiences in a targeted manner. In the process of bringing high-quality experience and meeting individual needs, it will also aggravate the “information cocoon effect”, trapping these audiences in the “cocoon”. Under the influence of a large amount of homogeneous content, their thoughts and cognition will change subtly. For this reason, the article “Artificial Intelligence and National Security” issued by the US Congress in November 2020 mentioned that it is necessary to create a complete “digital life model” to match and combine the target audience’s shopping records, credit reports, professional resumes, subscriptions, etc., to form a comprehensive behavioral profile of them, so as to better serve the influence action.
(V) Implement deep fake deception interference
The battlefield of public opinion has always been a combination of reality and fiction, and the flexible use of various “fog” and “traps” is a common means of winning for all parties in the game. In recent years, the hot deep fake technology, as a new means of information tampering and replacement based on deep learning, can generate highly realistic and difficult to identify information products through voice simulation, face synthesis, video generation and other methods, which also makes it a “throat-locking” trick in the battlefield of public opinion. For example, in 2018, the American online news media “Buzz Feed” made a fake video of Obama insulting Trump by grafting the voice and mouth shape of comedian Jordan Peele. Once it was launched on YouTube, it received 4.8 million hits. This video used artificial intelligence face-changing technology. In addition to face-changing videos, deep fakes are also often used for portrait synthesis. Compared with traditional character images and video synthesis, it has significant characteristics such as low cost, low operation difficulty, and short time required. This also makes the use of deep fake technology to create negative videos of politicians, false orders from military commanders, violent terrorist information and other “new rumors” emerge in an endless stream in today’s public opinion field. For this purpose, the US military has also specially carried out the research and development of projects such as “Trojan Horse in Artificial Intelligence” and “Reliable Guarantee of Artificial Intelligence for Deception”.
Capacity Building of “Intelligent Public Opinion Warfare”
“Intelligent public opinion warfare” is not only a contest of technology, but also a contest of capabilities. Although “weak artificial intelligence” technology is still widely used in the field of public opinion warfare, with the rapid development of science and technology, the capabilities of artificial intelligence will continue to increase, and public opinion warfare will also usher in a new era of intelligence. Looking forward to the major strategic opportunities for the development of artificial intelligence in my country, the continued development of national discourse power and the practical needs of responding to the attacks of the United States and the West on our public opinion warfare, it is necessary to strengthen multidisciplinary integration research, cross-exploration from multiple perspectives, and actively promote the transformation, upgrading and rapid development of “intelligent public opinion warfare” in technology, theory, practice, etc.
(I) Increase the technical research and development of “intelligent public opinion warfare”
“Intelligent public opinion warfare” must not only compete with people’s hearts, but also compete with machines. To this end, it is necessary to take policy as the guide and science and technology as the driving force to step up the research and development of intelligent technology in the field of international communication and public opinion attack and defense. First, we will vigorously solve the outstanding problems in media applications, such as framework bias, machine cognitive bias, and machine communication ambiguity, and fully activate the deep integration of artificial intelligence with 5G, social media, big data, the Internet of Things, virtual reality and other technologies in information production, presentation, and dissemination. The first is to create a new driving force in the field of “all-media journalists + algorithm engineers” and “killer” weapons for public opinion warfare to meet the actual needs of public opinion games in the intelligent era. The second is to strengthen the in-depth application of artificial intelligence technology in media interviews, writing, editing, and even robot hosting and broadcasting, deeply integrate the content production advantages accumulated by traditional media for a long time with intelligent technology, and comprehensively use text, audio and video, animation, live broadcast, data illustration and other forms to innovate the attractiveness and communication power of public opinion propaganda content; at the same time, distinguish different target objects to formulate specific communication strategies, improve the information product structure, enrich product formats, and accurately and segmentally influence the ideological cognition of each specific target group.
(II) Deepen the theoretical research on “intelligent public opinion warfare”
“Intelligent public opinion warfare” must not only solve the relationship between “construction” and “use”, but also grasp the laws of “root” and “end”, and focus on strengthening the exploration and dissection of the connotation mechanism, and effectively provide scientific theoretical guidance for promoting “intelligent public opinion warfare”. First, from the perspective of “public opinion + technology”, study how public opinion warfare can empower and increase efficiency. We must not only think about the problem from the perspective of competing with the enemy for the cognitive domain and the right to speak in public opinion, but also grasp the development trend of artificial intelligence communication technology, integrate advanced technical means into key links such as public opinion war situation perception, target selection, information dissemination, and effect evaluation, and deeply explore the winning mechanism, operational command, and capacity building of “intelligent public opinion war”. Second, from the perspective of “tactics + algorithm”, study how public opinion war can be fought intelligently. We must focus on the characteristics of the future public opinion battlefield such as “unmanned, invisible”, “brain-like, brain-controlled”, “actuarial, cloud computing”, and strengthen the application of advanced concepts such as intelligent game, cloud brain victory, visual expression, and asymmetric checks and balances; at the same time, summarize the superb strategies of struggles in the fields of military, politics, and public opinion in ancient and modern times, China and foreign countries, especially the experience and losses of using intelligent technology to carry out public opinion wars in recent years around the world, inherit in criticism, develop in innovation, and continuously improve the strategies and tactics that adapt to the development needs of “intelligent public opinion war” and have Chinese characteristics.
(III) Promote the practical application of “intelligent public opinion war”
The battlefield of public opinion is also wartime in peacetime, and it is still the same in the intelligent era. We must focus on daily life and the ubiquitous public opinion game to increase the intensity of tempering. First, optimize the overall layout and practical capabilities of intelligent public opinion dissemination, and gradually eliminate the “time difference” and “technical gap” with the capacity building and tactics of the United States and the West. Especially in the current situation where the United States and Western countries use the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the South China Sea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Xinjiang and other issues to intensively use intelligent means to smear and attack me, we must constantly sum up experience, find ways and improve our capabilities in actual combat. Second, accurately grasp the technical means and strategic methods of hostile forces at home and abroad to penetrate and break through my public opinion space, and promptly cut off the internal and external coordination and transmission channels of anti-China forces, and prevent the spread of politically harmful information and the cognitive influence on me. Third, we will increase the comprehensive use of national defense mobilization, administrative law, public opinion guidance and other means, integrate the propaganda, public security, diplomacy, intelligence, military and other departments, and cooperate with the media, think tanks, international communication public relations companies, opinion leaders, etc., and actively reserve combat power for the “intelligent public opinion war” by seeking the first mover advantage in all directions.
Notes:
[1] Chen Changfeng, Huo Jie. People-oriented: The application of artificial intelligence technology in the field of news communication [J]. News and Writing, 2018(8):54.
[2] Wan Ke. The application practice and enlightenment of artificial intelligence in American and British news media [J]. China Media Technology, 2017(7):19-20.
[3] Li Peng, Zhi Media. The new stage of media integration and transformation [N]. People’s Daily Online, 2019-04-19.
[4] Xinhua News Agency. “Media Transformation and Development in the Era of Artificial Intelligence” Research Group. The specific application of artificial intelligence in the entire chain of news communication [J]. China Journalist, 2020(2):19.
(Author’s unit: Political College of National Defense University. This article is a phased result of the research project of the National Social Science Fund.)
Recently, the artificial intelligence program ChatGPT has become popular on the Internet for its “erudition” and “answering all questions”. Generative AI represented by ChatGPT has a strong content generation ability and a “smartness” level that is close to that of humans. Applying it to the military field will inevitably have an impact on future wars.
Significantly improve battlefield perception. In future wars, various new types of rapid-killing weapons will further accelerate the battlefield rhythm, requiring continuous improvement of battlefield situation perception capabilities, and thus supporting rapid decision-making that adapts to battlefield needs. In the battlefield space full of “fog”, facing massive, multi-source, complex, heterogeneous and rapidly growing battlefield situation data, human perception speed and processing capabilities appear to be somewhat “slow”. The visual big model architecture introduced in recent years has made breakthroughs in many fields such as image classification, target detection, semantic segmentation, posture estimation, image editing, and remote sensing image interpretation through unsupervised pre-training and human feedback reinforcement learning paradigm, which can significantly improve battlefield perception. Intelligent weapons embedded with visual big models can accurately identify and distinguish the primary and secondary, true and false targets through the visual system, and can quickly extract and generate high-value intelligence from massive multimodal data, reduce the cognitive load of combat personnel, and form a comprehensive, timely and accurate judgment of the situation. Using the perception advantage of generative AI to achieve accurate positioning of key nodes may be the prerequisite for launching combat operations in the future.
Greatly promote human-computer interaction. Human-computer interaction allows machines to “listen” to human language, “see” human movements and expressions, “understand” human emotions and intentions, and present the calculation process and results in a way that is easy for people to understand. The language big model can not only perform well in text understanding scenarios such as sentiment analysis, voice recognition, and information extraction, but is also applicable to battlefield information system visualization generation scenarios such as picture description generation, manuscript generation, and dialogue generation. If it is embedded in an integrated joint combat system and continuously iterated and evolved, it can be used for more complex tasks such as scenario writing, combat plan generation, and exercise result evaluation, which may reshape the command decision-making process in future wars. Deeply embedding ChatGPT-type generative AI applications into command information systems can enable intelligent equipment to “understand” commands, accurately understand and analyze commanders’ operational needs through human-machine dialogue between commanders and battlefield information systems, and generate action reference plans on this basis, providing a new means for quickly and reasonably deploying combat forces in future wars.
Promote the autonomy of command decision-making. In information-based and intelligent warfare, the participating forces are diverse, the combat styles are diverse, and the battlefield situation is changing. Commanders face the “bottleneck” of insufficient intelligence in effectively commanding wars. With the help of the decision-making large model intelligent auxiliary system, the “human-machine” hybrid decision-making mode may become a new choice. Although from the current technical level, ChatGPT-type generative AI applications are still unable to perform operations such as machine control, group collaboration, and dynamic scheduling. However, its powerful parallel processing capability can handle thousands of tasks at the same time. It is suitable for integrated control of manned/unmanned platforms, generating control algorithms, optimizing group behavior, and fully supporting “swarm”, “fish school”, and “wolf pack” combat multi-agents. The command and control system based on the decision-making big model can give full play to the advantages of both the human brain and artificial intelligence, and realize the leap from intelligent prediction to intelligent decision-making, and from controlling single agents to multiple agents. In the future battlefield, embedding generative AI into unmanned combat platforms can innovate new paradigms for military operations and greatly improve combat effectiveness.
Give birth to a new model of logistics support. From the perspective of technological development, military confrontation is increasingly expanding to the physical, information and cognitive domains, and the combat space is extending to the extreme height, distance and depth. The corresponding logistics support tasks are also becoming more diverse and complex. In the future battlefield, the multi-task general large model will be integrated into the unmanned combat platform and various support systems. People, equipment and objects will be ubiquitously interconnected, and various combat and support entities will be organically integrated. The logistics support system realizes intelligent matching between people and materials, materials and equipment, materials and troops, and materials and regions through deep learning and analysis of big data such as the quantity, time and maintenance status of stored materials. It also automatically predicts material needs, matches the best means of transport, formulates the best transportation plan, and promptly solves problems in the battlefield logistics supply chain. Especially in the face of extreme combat support in complex terrain, contaminated areas, fire control areas and other areas that are difficult for personnel to reach, based on a large amount of pre-training of special mission training samples, generative AI can achieve changes in demand perception, resource allocation and action control, autonomously assign tasks, autonomously plan routes, and autonomously navigate and position, and deliver support materials directly and accurately to the support objects in a “point-to-point” manner, thereby realizing intelligent support.
