Category Archives: Chinese Artificial Intelligence

Chinese Warfare Planning: Artificial Intelligence Will Change the Mechanism of Winning Future Wars

中國戰爭規劃:人工智慧將改變未來戰爭的勝利機制

中國軍網 國防網 // 2024年5月2日 星期四

現代英語:

Artificial intelligence technology is an important support for improving strategic capabilities in emerging fields. In recent years, it has developed rapidly and has been widely used in the military field, constantly giving rise to new asymmetric advantages, and profoundly changing the basic form, combat methods and winning mechanisms of future wars. We should have a deep understanding of artificial intelligence as a revolutionary technological driving force, accurately recognize changes, respond to changes scientifically, and actively seek changes, strive to explore ways to win future wars, and gain the initiative in the accelerating intelligent war.

Information mechanism

Knowing yourself and the enemy will ensure victory in every battle. Quickly and effectively mastering all-round information is the primary prerequisite for winning a war. Artificial intelligence can realize intelligent perception of battlefield situations, intelligent analysis of massive data, and intelligent processing of multiple information, and can form a “transparent” advantage on the battlefield.

Autonomous implementation of battlefield perception. By embedding intelligent modules into the wartime reconnaissance system, various reconnaissance node units can realize random networking, ad hoc coordination, and organic integration, and can autonomously capture battlefield information in all directions and dimensions, build a relatively “transparent” digital battlefield environment and combat situation, and then dispel the “fog” of war and present the combat scene in a panoramic manner.

Accurately identify massive amounts of data. Relying on intelligent technologies such as precise sensing technology and analytical recognition technology, it accurately judges, analyzes, compares, and integrates diversified voice, text, pictures, videos, and other data to obtain faster, more complete, more accurate, and deeper battlefield situation results, far exceeding the speed and accuracy of human brain processing.

Efficient response to key information. Based on intelligent technology groups such as combat cloud, big data, and the Internet of Things, it can quickly discover large quantities of non-standardized and heterogeneous intelligence data, autonomously discover symptoms, identify intentions, analyze trends, find patterns, and respond to commanders’ needs for key information in real time and accurately.

Synchronous sharing of integrated situation. The intelligent control system can optimize and integrate various reconnaissance and surveillance systems distributed in different spaces and frequency domains such as land, sea, air, space and radio networks, and play an important hub role in sharing information and unified cognition, building a situation based on “one picture”, “one network” and “one chain”, so that all combat units can synchronously share the required information from different spaces, distances and frequencies in all domains and at all times, realizing intelligent sharing.

Decision-making mechanism

Those who can plan for victory before the battle have made more calculations. Scientific and accurate decision-making is a prerequisite for winning a war. Artificial intelligence can conduct dynamic battlefield simulation and deduction, quickly give feasible decisions, greatly shorten the decision-making cycle of combat planning, and form a decision-making advantage.

Intelligent strategic situation analysis. The decision-making support system that incorporates artificial intelligence technology has functions such as information collection, query management, data processing, and correlation analysis. It can effectively break through the limitations of human analysis capabilities, maximize the separation of false and true, correlation verification, and link thinking, and automatically conduct big data analysis such as enemy situation, our situation, and battlefield environment, forming comparative data on related forces and weapons, which can efficiently assist combat command and help commanders quickly make combat decisions.

Intelligent optimization of combat plans. Relying on the intelligent combat simulation system, it automatically generates multiple sets of intuitive plans and programs based on the pre-input combat missions and strike target information, comprehensively evaluates their advantages and disadvantages and potential risks, and selects the plan that is most conducive to realizing the commander’s intention for the commander to make the final decision. After receiving the combat missions and target requirements from the superior, each combat unit will further screen the battlefield target information in combination with the tasks and requirements of its own level, and independently formulate the best plan and program at its own level to maximize combat effectiveness.

Intelligent prediction of decision-making effectiveness. The intelligent decision-making auxiliary system relies on intelligent technologies such as big data, high-performance computing, and neural network algorithms to give the command and control system a more advanced “brain-like” ability, which can think more rationally about unexpected situations on the battlefield and quickly come to a relatively objective combat result.

Power control mechanism

The dominant position is to control power by taking advantage of the situation. Seizing control power is the key factor to win the war. Artificial intelligence can “transplant” part of human intelligence to weapons, making the combination of humans and weapon systems more and more close. The deep interaction between humans and machines has changed the traditional control elements, endowed new control connotations, and can help gain new control advantages.

The dominance of the domain is expanding to the high frontier. In the future, highly intelligent unmanned systems will be able to carry out a variety of combat missions even in harsh conditions such as high temperature, extreme cold, high pressure, lack of oxygen, toxicity, radiation, and in extreme environments such as extreme height, extreme distance, extreme depth, extreme micro, extreme darkness, and extreme brightness. The competition for dominance of the combat domain and combat space will extend to the high frontier, the far frontier, and the deep frontier.

The right to control information is expanding to multiple means. The traditional way to seize the right to control information is to control the channels of information acquisition, processing, and distribution by attacking the enemy’s reconnaissance and early warning system and destroying its command and control system. However, information warfare under the guidance of artificial intelligence uses information itself as “ammunition”, and the means to seize the right to control information are more diverse.

The network control power is expanding to distributed. The network information system built based on intelligent technology provides a ubiquitous network “cloud” to aggregate battlefield resources of various terminals and provide services, which can realize modular organization and automatic reorganization of combat forces. The traditional purpose of disconnecting the network and destroying the chain by striking key nodes will no longer be achieved. It is inevitable to respond to the “decentralized” battlefield with an intelligent distributed strike mode.

The power to control the brain is expanding to new dimensions. Brain-like technology and simulation technology are gradually militarized, forming new areas of competition and confrontation. The focus has shifted from focusing on confrontation in the physical and information domains to focusing more on influencing and controlling the opponent’s psychology. Technologies such as virtual reality and audio-visual synthesis can confuse the real with the fake. “Core attack” can quietly change the enemy’s command and control system algorithm. “Brain control” can directly control the enemy’s decision-making. By controlling and influencing the enemy’s psychology, thinking, and will, the goal of stopping and winning the war can be achieved at the lowest cost.

Mechanism of action

The key to victory in war is speed. Taking unexpected actions against the enemy is the key to victory in war. Artificial intelligence can improve the intelligence level of weapons and equipment, command and control systems, and action decisions, making mobile response capabilities faster and joint strike capabilities more accurate, creating a super action advantage.

The speed of action is “killed in seconds”. The intelligent combat system can see, hear, understand, learn and think, effectively shortening the “OODA” cycle. Once an “opportunity” is found, it will use intelligently controlled hypersonic weapons, kinetic weapons, laser weapons, etc. to quickly “kill” the target at a long distance.

Action style is “unmanned”. “Unmanned + intelligent” is the future development direction of weapons and equipment. Low-cost unmanned vehicles, drones, unmanned submarines and other unmanned autonomous equipment, with the support of cluster autonomous decision-making systems, can plan the task division of each unit according to combat targets, and unmanned devices can accurately dock, autonomously combine, and covertly penetrate to carry out cluster saturation attacks on the enemy.

The action space is “blurred”. In future wars, using interference means to carry out soft strikes on the enemy’s intelligent combat systems and intelligent weapons, and using intelligent weapons to delay or influence the enemy’s decision-making and psychology will become the key to victory. Most of these actions are completed unconsciously or silently, presenting a “blurred” state where the enemy and us are invisible, the boundaries between the front and the rear are unclear, and the visible and invisible are difficult to distinguish.

The action deployment is “stealth”. The intelligent command system and weapon equipment have bionic and stealth properties. As long as they are deployed in advance in possible combat areas during peacetime preparations or training exercises, they can be hidden and dormant and ready for combat. Once they are activated in time in wartime, they can launch a sudden attack on the enemy, which will help to quickly seize the initiative in the war.

System Mechanism

Five things and seven strategies determine victory or defeat. Future wars will be full-domain, full-system, full-element, full-process system confrontations, and a stable and efficient combat system is the basic support for winning the war. With the continuous expansion of the application of artificial intelligence in the military field, the combat system is becoming more and more intelligent, and the full-domain integrated combat system will produce a strong system advantage.

There are more means of “detection”. Intelligent combat clusters rely on network information systems to connect with various large sensors, electronic warfare systems and other human-machine interaction platforms, use the detection and perception equipment of each combat unit to obtain battlefield data, give play to the self-organizing characteristics of intelligent groups, strengthen real-time detection and support for joint combat systems and back-end intelligence analysis, and can achieve full-domain detection, joint early warning, and coordinated verification, forming a multi-dimensional, full-domain coverage of large-area joint detection intelligence system.

The scope of “control” is wider. The use of intelligent unmanned combat platforms can break through the logical limits of human thinking, the physiological limits of the senses, and the physical limits of existence, and replace humans to enter traditional life restricted areas such as the deep sea, space, polar regions, and strong radiation areas, and stay there for a long time to implement “unconventional warfare”, thereby further expanding the combat space and having the ability to continuously repel opponents in a wider range of fields.

The speed of “fighting” is faster. With the support of intelligent network information system, the intelligence chain, command chain and killing chain are seamlessly connected, the speed of information transmission, decision-making speed and action speed are accelerated simultaneously, and the intelligent combat units can be flexibly organized, autonomously coordinated and quickly strike. All of these make the time utilization efficiency extremely high and the battlefield response speed extremely fast.

The “evaluation” is more accurate. Using intelligent technologies such as experiential interactive learning and brain-like behavioral systems, the intelligent combat evaluation system can autonomously complete the collection, aggregation, grading and classification of multi-means action effect evaluation information, accurately perceive battlefield actions based on big data and panoramic images, dynamically identify combat processes and correct defects, predict complex battlefield changes, and make comprehensive plans and flexibly respond.

The “security” is more efficient. The widespread application of intelligent comprehensive security systems represented by equipment maintenance expert systems and intelligent sensing equipment can efficiently respond to security needs in various domains, intelligently plan security resources, and ensure that the “cloud” aggregates various battlefield resources, effectively improving the comprehensive security capabilities of the networked battlefield.

(Author’s unit: Henan Provincial Military Region)

現代國語漢語:

人工智慧技術是提高新興領域戰略能力的重要支撐,近年來獲得快速發展並廣泛運用於軍事領域,不斷催生新的非對稱優勢,深刻改變未來戰爭的基本形態、作戰方式和製勝機理。應該深刻認識人工智慧這一革命性技術動力,準確識變、科學應變、主動求變,努力探尋制勝未來戰爭之道,在加速來臨的智能化戰爭中贏得主動。

資訊機理

知彼知己,百戰不殆。快速有效地掌握全方位資訊是戰爭制勝的首要前提。人工智慧可實現戰場態勢智慧感知、大量數據智慧分析、多元資訊智慧處理,能夠形成戰場「透明」優勢。

戰場感知自主實施。將智慧模塊嵌入戰時偵察系統,各類偵察節點單元可以實現隨機組網、臨機協同、有機整合,能夠全方位、多維度自主捕獲戰場信息,構建相對“透明”的數字化戰場環境和作戰態勢,進而撥開戰爭“迷霧”,全景式呈現作戰場景。

海量數據精準識別。依托精準感知技術和分析識別技術等智慧化科技,精準判讀、分析、比對、融合多元化的語音、文字、圖片、影片等數據,從而獲取更快、更全、更準、更深的戰場態勢結果,遠超人腦處理的速度和精確度。

關鍵資訊高效響應。基於作戰雲、大數據、物聯網等智慧化技術群,能夠從大批量、非標準化、異構化的情報數據中快速發掘,自主發現徵候、識別意圖、研判趨勢、找到規律,實時精準地響應指揮員對關鍵資訊的需求。

融合態勢同步共用。智慧化控制系統能夠將分佈在陸海空天電網等不同空間、不同頻域的各種偵察監視系統優化整合,並發揮共享信息和統一認知的重要樞紐作用,構建形成基於“一幅圖”“一張網」「一條鏈」的態勢,使各作戰單元全局全頻全時從不同空間、不同距離、不同頻率同步共享所需信息,實現智慧共享。

決策機理

夫未戰而廟算勝者,得算多也。科學準確決策是戰爭制勝的先決條件。人工智慧可進行動態戰場模擬推演,快速給出可行決策,大幅縮短作戰籌劃決策週期,能夠形成決策優勢。

戰略形勢智能研判。融入人工智慧技術的決策輔助系統,具備資訊收集、查詢管理、數據處理、關聯分析等功能,可有效突破人類分析能力的限制,最大限度去偽存真、關聯印證、連結思考,自動進行敵情、我情和戰場環境等大數據分析,形成相關兵力、兵器等對比數據,能夠有效率地輔助作戰指揮,幫助指揮員快速定下作戰決心。

作戰方案智能優選。依托智能化作戰模擬系統,根據預先輸入的作戰任務和打擊目標訊息,自動產生多套形象直觀的方案和計劃,綜合評估其優缺點及潛在風險,優選出最有利於實現指揮員意圖的方案,供指揮員作出最後決斷。各作戰單元接到上級作戰任務和目標需求後,結合本級任務和要求,進一步對戰場目標資訊進行甄別篩選,自主訂定本級最優方案和計畫,實現作戰效能最大化。

決策效能智能預測。智慧化輔助決策系統依賴大數據、高效能計算、神經網絡演算法等智慧化技術,賦予指揮控制系統更高階的「類腦」能力,可以更理性地思考戰場上出現的意外情況,快速得出相對客觀的交戰結果。

制權機理

勢者,因利而製權也。奪取制權是贏得戰爭制勝優勢的關鍵因素。人工智慧可將人的部分智慧「移植」到武器上,使得人與武器系統結合越來越緊密,人機一體深度互動改變了傳統的製權要素,賦予新的製權內涵,能夠助力獲得新的製權優勢。

制域權向高邊疆拓展。未來高度智慧化的無人系統,即使在高溫、極寒、高壓、缺氧、有毒、輻射等惡劣條件下,在極高、極遠、極深、極微、極黑、極亮等極端環境中,仍然可以遂行多種作戰任務,作戰領域和作戰空間的製權之爭向高邊疆、遠邊疆、深邊疆延伸。

制資訊權向多手段拓展。傳統的奪取制資訊權,是透過打擊敵偵察預警體系、破壞其指揮控制系統等手段實現對資訊取得、處理、分發等途徑的控制,而人工智慧主導下的資訊作戰則是將資訊本身作為「彈藥”,奪取制資訊權的手段更加多樣。

製網權向分散式拓展。基於智慧科技構建的網絡資訊體系,提供泛在網絡「雲」以聚合各類終端的戰場資源並提供服務,能夠實現作戰力量模塊化編組、自動化重組,傳統的通過打擊關鍵節點,達成斷網毀鏈的目的將很難再實現,必然是以智慧化分散式打擊模式來應對「去中心化」的戰場。

制腦權向新維域拓展。類腦技術、模擬技術等逐步軍事化,形成了新的博弈和對抗領域,重心由注重物理域、資訊域對抗向更加註重影響和控制對手心理轉變,虛擬現實、聲像合成等技術能夠以假亂真, 「攻芯戰」能夠悄無聲息地改變敵方指揮控制系統演算法,「控腦戰」能夠直接控制敵方決策,透過控制和影響敵方的心理、思維、意誌等,能夠以最小代價實現止戰、勝戰之目的。

行動機理

兵之情主速,乘人之不及。採取敵方意料不到的行動是戰爭制勝的關鍵要害。人工智慧可提高武器裝備、指控系統、行動決策等方面的智慧化程度,使機動反應能力更快、聯合打擊能力更準,創造出超強的行動優勢。

行動速度「秒殺化」。智慧化作戰系統看得見、聽得懂、能學習、會思考,有效縮短了“OODA”循環週期,一旦發現“有機可乘”,便運用智能化控制的超高聲速武器、動能武器、激光武器等,對目標進行遠距離快速「秒殺」。

行動樣式“無人化”。 「無人+智慧」是未來武器裝備發展方向。低成本的無人車、無人機、無人潛航器等無人自主裝備,在集群自主決策系統支援下,可針對作戰目標規劃各單元的任務分工,無人器之間精準對接、自主組合、隱蔽突防,對敵進行集群飽和攻擊。

行動空間「模糊化」。未來戰爭中,利用乾擾手段對敵方的智慧化作戰系統和智慧武器實施軟打擊,利用智慧武器遲滯或影響敵方人員的決策和心理將成為製勝關鍵。這些行動大都是在不知不覺或無聲無息中完成的,呈現敵我雙方不見人影、前方後方界限不清、有形無形難以辨別的「模糊」狀態。

行動布勢「隱身化」。智慧化指揮系統和武器裝備具有生物仿生和隱身性能。只要在平時備戰或訓練演習時提前佈設在可能交戰地域,潛伏預置、休眠待戰,戰時一旦需要適時激活,對敵實施猝然打擊,有助於快速掌握戰爭主動權。

體系機理

五事七計知勝負。未來戰爭是全領域、全系統、全要素、全流程的體系對抗,穩定高效的作戰體係是戰爭制勝的基礎支撐。隨著人工智慧在軍事領域應用不斷拓展,作戰體系智慧化程度越來越高,全域融合的作戰體係將產生強大的體系優勢。

「偵」的手段更多。智慧化作戰集群依托網絡資訊體係與各類大型傳感器、電子戰系統及其他人機交互平台進行連接,運用各作戰單元自身檢測感知設備獲取戰場數據,發揮智能群體自組織特性,強化對聯合作戰體系及後端情報分析的即時偵監支持,能夠實現全局偵搜、聯合預警、協同印證,形成多維一體、全局覆蓋的大區域聯合偵察情報體系。

「控」的領域更廣。運用智慧化無人作戰平台,能夠突破人類思維的邏輯極限、感官的生理極限和存在的物理極限,並代替人類進入深海、太空、極地、強輻射地域等傳統的生命禁區,並長時間置身其中實施“非常規作戰”,從而使作戰空間進一步拓展,具備在更廣的領域持續懾拒對手的實力。

「打」的速度更快。在智慧化網路資訊體系支撐下,情報鏈、指揮鏈、殺傷鏈無縫連接,資訊傳輸速度、決策速度與行動速度同步加快,智慧化作戰單元能夠靈活編組、自主協同、快速打擊。這些都使得時間利用效率極高、戰場反應速度極快。

「評」的精度更準。運用經驗式互動學習、類腦行為體係等智慧化科技,智慧化作戰評估系統能夠自主完成多手段行動效果評估資訊的擷取匯聚、分級分類,基於大數據和全景圖精準感知戰場行動,動態識別作戰過程並糾正缺陷問題,預判複雜戰場變化,綜合規劃、靈活應對。

「保」的效率更高。以裝備維修專家系統、智慧化感知設備為代表的智慧化綜合保障系統的廣泛應用,能夠高效響應各域保障需求,智慧規劃保障資源,保障「雲」聚合各類戰場資源,有效提升網絡化戰場綜合保障能力。

(作者單位:河南省軍區)

中國原創軍事資源:https://www.81.cn/szb_223187/szbxq/index.html?paperName=jfjb&paperDate=2024-05-02&paperNumber=03&articleid=930888

Chinese Military Discussion on “Intelligent Public Opinion Warfare”

現代英語語言:

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.

  1. 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”.

  1. 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.)

現代國語:

作者:■孫亦祥 餘遠來
摘 要:人工智慧技術的發展運用,大大改變了資訊傳播、輿論生態,也催生了「智慧化輿論戰」的誕生。前瞻國家話語權的續存發展和大國輿論博弈背後的技術較量,本文提出了「智能化輿論戰」概念,並圍繞其發展圖景、運用策略和能力構建進行闡釋分析,旨在探究智能化時代輿論戰發展的新疆域、新賽局和新戰法,為我制勝未來輿論戰場提供理論參考。

關鍵字:「智能化輿論戰」;發展圖景;運用策略;能力建構

「智能化輿論戰」是基於智慧化戰爭形態演變和輿論戰發展前景而提出的新概念,是利用人工智慧領域新技術新運用擴散政治議題、衍生論述生態、推廣意識形態、影響公眾意見的一種全新輿論攻防行動。其實質是透過智慧機器人、深度學習、演算法推薦等顛覆性技術運用與5G、社群媒體、大數據、物聯網等深度融合來提升資訊傳播的速度、精度、強度和廣度,進而使傳統輿論戰在態勢感知、目標鎖定、資訊推送和效果評估等核心環節得以突破“技術瓶頸”,改變以往有的作戰中靶向性不強、聚合力有限、可控性偏弱等現象,對於人的智力、精力依賴程度高等重難點問題,大幅發揮攻心奪志、影響認知的「軟殺傷」效能。對於「智能化輿論戰」的深入分析,旨在探索輿論戰發展的新疆域、新博弈和新戰法,為我軍打造新質輿論戰力量,制勝未來輿論戰場提供理論參考。

一、「智能化輿論戰」的發展圖景

人工智慧的本質是人類思維的模擬,它的最大優勢是模擬、延伸和擴展人的智慧。 [1]而輿論戰以媒介訊息攻擊與對抗為基本形式,旨在影響、說服目標對手,改變其精神認知,它的主要「武器平台」就是傳播訊息的各類傳媒。伴隨人工智慧技術的日益成熟,傳統媒體的採、寫、編、播技術開始逐步被機器人寫手、演算法推薦、自動播報、聲像擬合、沉浸式新聞等替代,「武器平台」的顛覆性變換也深刻影響輿論戰的發展形態,使傳統輿論戰開始朝著可計算、可建模、可預測的智慧化時代快速邁進。各種跡象表明,當前社交機器人、深度偽造、大數據分析等智慧化技術已在許多國際重大事件中充分運用,其輿論影響日益強大。

(一)人工智慧引領傳播方式新變化

儘管目前智慧機器人還不能從根本上替代人成為傳播訊息的主體,但是「人工模板+自動化資料填充」的訊息生產傳播模式,以及智慧推薦演算法已成為媒體與受眾間更精準對接的橋樑紐帶。加之智慧型手機、智慧晶片、智慧寫稿、虛擬主播、AI剪輯等軟硬體的深入普及,導致全球傳媒產業都在積極尋求如何將專業優勢與人工智慧的高效能力進行完美結合。如《華盛頓郵報》所使用的機器人Heliograf,可根據即時資料來源自動產生故事,並為受眾提供個人客製化新聞。 《紐約時報》所使用的機器人Blossomblot,可透過分析社群媒體資料來篩選傳播潛在的熱文等。 [2]還有國內新華社使用的快筆小新、騰訊的Dreamwriter、今日頭條的Xiaomingbot等寫作軟體。正是基於人工智慧、行動互聯網、大數據、區塊鏈等技術的大力驅動,現今的媒體生態已由全媒體、融媒體開始向智媒體發展。 [3]以演算法為代表的新聞推送方式和以機器人新聞為代表的新聞生產方式已成為全球傳播領域發展的新特色新變化。

(二)智能傳媒賦予輿論操控新效能

智慧媒體作為一種人工智慧與人類智慧協同的線上社會資訊傳播系統,透過創建虛擬意見領袖、演算法分析使用者偏好、革新內容分發規則、自動大量發布資訊等手段,在製造話題、吸引粉絲、提升流量,不斷加大輿論影響力控制力的同時,還能進行持續深入的思想滲透和輿論影響,幹​​預社會公眾的基本判斷和普遍認知。如2016年美國大選期間,Facebook透過演算法建構用戶畫像並設計軟體程序,從而預測和乾涉選民的投票意向和行為,進行政治操控等。正是由於這些智慧媒體新聞生產的機器化、新聞發布的個人化、新聞體驗的臨場化、互動回饋的感測化等顯著特點,使得輿論場的「後真相」「資訊繭房」迴聲室效應」「沉默的螺旋」「群體極化」等現像在人為操控下變得更為突出,這也為廝殺輿論戰場的各方提供了新的製勝途徑。目前智慧傳媒在生產大量新聞稿的過程中,已發展成為傳播政治軍事類議題,並進行輿論操控的重要力量。根據牛津大學網路研究所「計算宣傳研究計畫」報告稱,截至2019年,全球已有50多個國家發現運用機器人水軍操縱輿論的情況。

(三)現代戰爭凸顯以智制輿新前景

現代戰爭已從傳統物理域有形戰場拓展到資訊域、認知域的無形戰場。而人工智慧技術賦予國家機構迅速、廉價、大規模操縱輿論的巨大潛能,也導致混合戰、多域戰等新型戰爭形態帶來的威脅挑戰持續加劇。借助智慧化傳播手段高效傳播有利於己的情感認知、價值觀念和意見傾向,已成為現代戰爭政治軍事目標實現的重要「助推器」。對此美國前國防部長馬克·埃斯珀曾說:「率先使用人工智慧的國家,將在未來很長時期的戰場上擁有決定性優勢,因此我們必須首先做到。」長期以來,美軍利用「在線虛擬身分管理」軟體的大量虛假身分(即「馬甲」),在Facebook、Twitter等各大社群網站上參與聊天或發文以製造親美言論。由於出錯率低、生產完全自動化,這些機器人水軍很快就轉變為影響輿論的重要工具。 2014年美國政府也出資7.6億元聘請廣告公司,專門為打擊蓋達組織、索馬利亞青年黨等目標而實施智能化輿論戰。近年來,從委內瑞拉、伊朗等多個國家遭遇的重大輿論危機事件到敘利亞戰爭、巴以衝突來看,利用社交機器人、深度偽造、虛擬宣傳等智能化傳播技術與手段來影響公眾輿論已成常態,而「智能化輿論戰」也逐漸從幕後走向前台,並呈現出以智駕馭輿、以輿制勝的強勁勢頭。

二、「智能化輿論戰」的運用策略

「智慧化輿論戰」的作用機制是:藉助機器學習深度挖掘受眾情感、偏見並篩選、鎖定最易受影響的受眾,然後利用演算法生產大量說服性內容,並由網路新聞聚合器、企業客服機器人等進行批量灌水、散佈和轉發,從而破壞原有的國際話語體系和傳播生態,達到操控輿論的目的。其輿論戰的實施主體、客體,以及議題、內容、手段等關鍵要素都高度依賴智慧化技術的賦能增效。在當今,各主要國家都在積極謀求透過智慧化「技術差」來搶佔優勢話語權,贏得輿論戰主動權,主要運用策略有:

(一)培塑虛擬傳播主體

傳統輿論戰的實施主體既有宣傳部門、媒體機構、智庫,也有新聞發言人、意見領袖和一般網友等。而智慧化技術讓這個主體拓展到了寫稿機器人、對話機器人、虛擬部落客和水軍等大批“人機烏合之眾”,並在全球範圍內呈現井噴之勢。據美國“膠囊裡”網站報道,互聯網安全公司IMPV發布的《2016年機器流量報告》稱,他們通過對全球10萬個域名網站訪問記錄分析發現,其中約52%的互聯網流量來自“自動化程序” ,即機器人。美國皮尤研究中心2018年調查也發現,它們從各類社群媒體平台收集到的連結至2315個流行網站的120萬則Twitter貼文中,有66%為機器人所分享。還有俄羅斯打造的“巨魔大軍”,部署有海量機器人虛擬帳號,其互聯網研究局在24小時內就能推出2.5萬條推文。這些異軍突起的新興力量,導致各國間進行輿論戰的「非對稱」態勢持續加劇。有研究顯示,民眾的想法很容易受到他們在網路上所看到的資訊的影響,而社群網路上的機器人發表的言論往往能夠對他們的想法施加重要的影響。

(二)深挖鎖定目標受眾

目標受眾是輿論戰的靶標,而快速識別目標受眾的社會特性、立場傾向和生活方式等,將有助於提高基於受眾文化心理的靶向打擊能力,積極塑造和改變目標對象的群體認知。以智慧演算法建構的「雲端大腦」能夠深刻解析使用者接收需求和興趣動向,總結行為模型、描繪使用者畫像、發現內在規律,並確定訊息推送的最準內容、最佳時機、最優路徑,提高精準分眾、差異傳播的準確率和致效強度。同時,透過智慧技術掌握目標受眾的差異化需求,也能夠對不同社群、圈群實現從內容生產到分發的智慧化構建,以契合不同受眾群體的價值傾向,滿足他們的個人需求。這樣的傳播優勢有助於更好地整合多元、分散觀點,快速匯聚輿論主導意見。目前除智慧社交媒體外,智慧汽車、智慧購物平台等都已成為用戶資訊收集的重要平台。根據這些平台提供的數據很容易繪製出關鍵性社會結構、人文地圖,以及關鍵影響者和輿論意見領袖,這也使得輿論戰的標靶變得更精準,致效率變得更高。

(三)自動聚合熱點議題

設定議題是強化輿論控制的重要環節,智能化技術強化了海量資訊中的熱點議題挖掘、聚合和分享功能,從而使輿論發酵過程中的人為因素持續攀升,輿論的滋生發展更容易朝操控者所期待的方向發展。一方面,大數據挖掘新聞線索,能夠快速提煉、編輯和發布吸引公眾眼球,引發眾議的議題。如美國NewsWhip(新聞鞭)透過大數據挖掘技術,可以每兩分鐘掃描一次Facebook、Twitter、Instagram等全球主要社群媒體,來捕捉什麼事件是當下最熱門的,怎樣的內容更受歡迎,然後分析這些內容的發展趨勢並轉化為可操作的建議,幫助媒體人根據線索進行選題策劃。 [4]另一方面,智慧化傳播介質能夠讓音訊視訊、影像、文字等不同資訊產品得以以資料資訊流的形態在穿戴式裝置、雲端終端、網站及相關社交媒介中進行自由配對與分享,這也進一步加劇了熱點輿論的聚合力影響力。

(四)利用演算法生成內容

資訊內容作為輿論戰的“彈藥”,具有鮮明的指向性、針對性和強烈的話題度,它的策劃、製作和包裝主要基於政治、軍事目標的考量,而非單純的新聞價值或商業價值。而演算法作為資料資訊與人工智慧的節點,發揮建構流量入口、捕捉用戶黏性的關鍵作用。如當前大多數新聞App和社群媒體平台使用的演算法分發機制,其透過機器學習,抓取和分析用戶的年齡、性別、職業、文化水平等自然訊息,以及閱讀時的接觸時長、接觸頻率、接觸動機等行為訊息,可以實現對使用者的精準畫像。同時,根據指令拼貼各種“新聞素材”,有針對性地推送給這些預先鎖定的目標受眾。在帶來優質體驗、滿足個性需求的過程中,也會加劇“資訊繭房效應”,使這些受眾困於“繭房”之中,在大量同質化內容的灌輸影響下,思想認知發生潛移默化的改變。正因如此,美國國會於2020年11月頒發的《人工智慧與國家安全》一文中提及,要透過創造完整的“數位生活模型”,將目標受眾的購物記錄、信用報告、職業簡歷、訂閱等匹配組合,對其形成綜合性的行為簡介,從而更好地服務於影響力行動。

(五)實施深偽欺騙幹擾

輿論戰場向來虛實結合,各種「迷霧」「陷阱」的靈活運用是博弈各方慣用的製勝手段。近年來,大熱的深度偽造技術,作為基於深度學習的一種新型信息篡改與替換手段,透過語音模擬、人臉合成、視頻生成等方法可以生成高逼真且難以甄別的信息產品,這也使其成為了輿論戰場的「鎖喉」招數。如2018年美國網路新聞媒體「嗡嗡餵」透過嫁接喜劇演員喬丹皮爾的聲音和嘴型,製作了一段奧巴馬辱罵川普的假視頻,YouTube一經上線就獲得了480萬次的點擊量,這段影片運用的就是人工智慧換臉技術。除換臉影片外,深度偽造也常被用於人像合成,與傳統的人物影像、影片合成相比,它具有使用成本低、操作難度小、所需時間短等顯著特點,這也使得利用深度偽造技術製造政治人物負面影片、軍隊指揮官虛假命令、暴力恐怖訊息等「新型謠言」在當今輿論場層出不窮。美軍為此也特別進行了「人工智慧中的特洛伊木馬」「面向欺騙的人工智慧可靠保障」等項目的研發。

三、「智能化輿論戰」的能力建構

「智能化輿論戰」既是技術的較量,也是能力的比拼。儘管目前輿論戰領域普遍應用的還是「弱人工智慧」技術,但是隨著科技的快速發展,人工智慧的能力將不斷增強,輿論戰也必將迎來全新的智慧化時代。前瞻我國人工智慧發展的重大戰略機遇,國家話語權的續存發展和應對美西方對我輿論戰攻擊的現實需要,必須加強多學科的融合研究,多視角的交叉探索,積極推動「智能化輿論戰」在技術、理論、實踐等方面的轉型升級、快速發展。

(一)加大「智能化輿論戰」的技術研發

「智能化輿論戰」不僅要與人心博弈,更要與機器較量,為此必須以政策為導向、科技為牽引,加緊推動智能化技術在國際傳播和輿論攻防領域的研究攻關。一是大力破解媒體應用方面依然存在的框架偏差、機器認知偏差、機器交流歧義等多方面突出問題,全面激活人工智能與5G、社交媒體、大數據、物聯網、虛擬實境等技術的深度融合和在資訊生產、呈現、傳播等面向的全新驅動力,系統打造「全媒體記者+演算法工程師」與輿論戰「殺手鐧」武器,以因應智慧化時代輿論博弈的現實需求。二是加強人工智慧技術在媒體採訪、寫稿、編輯,甚至機器人主持播報諸多領域的深化運用,將傳統媒體長期累積的內容製作優勢與智慧科技深度融合,綜合運用文字、影音、動漫、直播、數據圖解等形式,創新輿論宣傳內容的吸引力傳播力;同時區分不同目標對象制定特定傳播策略,完善資訊產品結構、豐富產品業態,精準化、分眾化影響各特定目標群的思想認知。

(二)深化「智慧化輿論戰」的理論攻關

「智能化輿論戰」既要解決好「建」與「用」的關係,也要把握好「本」與「末」的規律,要注重加強內涵機理的探索解剖,切實為推進「智能化輿論戰”提供科學的理論指導。一是從「輿論+技術」的角度出發,研究輿論戰如何賦能增效。既要站在與敵爭奪認知域、輿論話語權的高度思考問題,又要掌握人工智慧傳播技術的發展趨勢,將先進技術手段融入輿論戰態勢感知、目標選擇、資訊傳播、效果評估等重點環節,深入探索「智慧化輿論戰」的致勝機制、運籌指揮與能力建構等。二是從「戰法+演算法」的角度出發,研究輿論戰如何智慧作戰。要聚焦未來輿論戰場「無人、無形」「類腦、控腦」「精算、雲算」等特點,強化智能博弈、雲腦制勝、可視化表達、非對稱制衡等先進理念的運用;同時總結古今中外軍事、政治、輿論諸領域鬥爭的高超謀略,尤其是全球範圍內近年運用智能技術開展輿論戰的經驗得失,在批判中繼承,在創新中發展,不斷完善適應“智能化輿論戰”發展需要且具有中國特色的謀略戰法。

(三)推動「智能化輿論戰」的實戰運用

輿論戰場的平時也是戰時,智慧化時代依然如此,必須立足日常、著眼無時無所不在的輿論博弈加大錘煉砥礪力度。一是優化智慧化輿論傳播的整體佈局和實戰能力,逐步消除與美西方能力建設和戰法運用的「時間差」「技術差」。特別在當前美西方國家利用新冠肺炎疫情、南海、台灣、香港、新疆等問題,密集使用智能手段對我進行輿論抹黑攻擊的情況下,要在實戰應對中不斷總結經驗、尋找辦法、提升能力。二是精準掌握境內外敵對勢力向我輿論空間進行滲透突破的技術手段與策略手法,及時斬斷反華勢力內外策應傳導渠道,阻遏政治有害資訊傳播及對我實施認知影響。第三是加大國防動員、行政法、輿論引導等手段的綜合運用,宣傳、公安、外交、情報、軍事等部門的一體聯動,以及媒體、智庫、國際傳播公關公司、意見領袖等的配合與協作,透過全方位謀求先發之勢,為「智能化輿論戰」積極儲備戰力。

註 釋:

[1]陳昌鳳、霍婕.以人為本:人工智慧技術在新聞傳播領域的應用[J].新聞與寫作,2018(8):54.

[2]萬可.美英新聞媒體人工智慧應用實務及啟示[J].中國傳媒科技,2017(7):19-20.

[3]李鵬、智媒體.媒體融合轉型新階段[N].人民網,2019-04-19.

[4]新華社.「人工智慧時代媒體變革與發展」主題組.人工智慧在新聞傳播全鏈條中的具體應用[J].中國記者,2020(2):19.

(作者單位:國防大學政治學院。本文為國家社科基金計畫研究階段性成果。)

中國軍事原文來源:https://www.81.cn/rmjz_203219/jsjz/2022nd1q_227501/yldzgzyj_227505/10145288.html

Chinese Military’s Embrace of Artificial Intelligence: How to Revolutionize Future Warfare

中國軍隊擁抱人工智慧:如何徹底改變未來戰爭

現代英語:

Source: China National Defense News Author: Chen Hanghui Editor-in-charge: Qiao Nannan 2018-01-02 08:29:25

At present, the world is on the eve of the intelligent revolution, and human society is moving from the “Internet +” era to the “Intelligence +” era. In recent years, driven by big data, new algorithms and supercomputing, artificial intelligence is changing and even subverting every industry it touches, and war is no exception. From underwater submersibles to drone swarms, from predictive maintenance software to intelligent decision-making assistants, artificial intelligence is affecting different areas of war with unprecedented breadth and depth, promoting a new round of military reforms, and the form and appearance of war are quietly changing.

Temple planning comes first, war design becomes more sophisticated

“The Art of War” by Sun Tzu says: “He who plans for victory before the battle has made many calculations; he who plans for defeat before the battle has made few calculations.” Looking at the history of human warfare, “He who plans more wins, and he who plans less loses” is an immutable theorem.

Future wars will increasingly rely on “temple calculations”. Artificial intelligence can enhance the effectiveness of war prediction in at least two ways:

First, it can more accurately calculate and predict the outcome of wars. With the support of advanced algorithms and supercomputing capabilities, the calculation and prediction results of artificial intelligence systems are more accurate than those of the human brain. Second, with the help of war game systems, combat plans can be tested and optimized more effectively. For example, war game systems that incorporate artificial intelligence can engage in man-machine confrontation with humans, which helps people find problems and find weaknesses. In particular, after introducing algorithms such as deep learning into war game systems, the behavior of intelligent systems will become profound and varied, which will help break through the established thinking of humans, enhance the confrontation and authenticity of war game simulations, and achieve the purpose of optimizing solutions. In addition, intelligent war game systems can also be used to conduct machine-machine confrontations to improve the efficiency of simulations.

In February 2015, the U.S. Department of Defense issued a memorandum titled “Wargames and Innovation,” proposing to introduce machine learning into wargames. Currently, Rand Corporation and Raytheon have already begun attempts in this regard. Once mature intelligent software is applied to wargames, it will not only improve the level of optimization plans and prediction of war situations, but also more accurately predict the size of the troops involved in the war, ammunition consumption, duration and support requirements, etc., significantly improving the ability to design wars.

Speed ​​is the key to success. The pace of operations has never been faster.

In the information age, wars follow the principle of “the fast eats the slow”. In the several wars since the Gulf War, the key to the US military’s repeated victories is that it always achieves “the fastest move”.

Nowadays, the reaction speed of artificial intelligence has completely “crushed” the human brain. In 2016, in a simulated air battle, the “Alpha” intelligent software developed by the University of Cincinnati in the United States controlled the F-15 fighter and defeated the F-22 fighter piloted by humans. The reason is that the reaction speed of the intelligent software is 250 times that of the human brain! In October this year, the Geospatial Intelligence Center of the University of Missouri in the United States announced a research result showing that the center has developed an algorithm model based on deep learning technology, which can search and identify missile launch sites within nearly 90,000 square kilometers in the southeastern coastal area of ​​a certain country within 42 minutes, which is 85 times faster than human analysts and has an accuracy rate reaching the level of expert image analysts.

For this reason, in recent years, the US, Russian and other militaries have turned their attention to artificial intelligence, intending to use the speed advantage of artificial intelligence to shorten their decision-making cycle on the battlefield and firmly grasp the operational advantage. In July this year, Russian weapons manufacturer Kalashnikov announced that it had developed a fully automatic combat module based on artificial neural networks, which can achieve destruction upon detection. In addition, the US military is developing intelligent tools such as automated data analysis tools, automatic target recognition software, airborne intelligent decision assistants, and digital air combat planners, intending to reduce the burden of intelligence and combat personnel at all stages of the decision-making cycle and improve decision-making efficiency. In November this year, the head of the US Department of Defense’s algorithmic warfare project called for: Any weapon system purchased by the US military in the future should be integrated with artificial intelligence.

It can be predicted that as more and more intelligent weapon systems are deployed on the battlefield, combat response time on the battlefield will become shorter and shorter, combat actions will become unprecedentedly fierce, and will eventually exceed human understanding and response capabilities.

Autonomous confrontation, the combat mode has changed

Since the 20th century, the development of detection technology and the advancement of perception technology under the wave of informatization have promoted the birth of the man-machine collaborative combat chain of “sensor-shooter-weapon platform”.

With the development of artificial intelligence technology, intelligent weapon systems that can automatically identify, lock and strike targets are gradually emerging, and can replace humans to execute simple decision-making commands. Such as the US military’s ship-borne “Aegis” system, the Israeli military’s “Iron Dome” system, the Russian military’s “Arena” active protection system, the French military’s “Shark” system, etc. However, the intelligence level of these systems is not high at present, and the autonomous combat mode is usually the last option.

In the future, with the advancement of intelligent technology groups such as sensor technology, new algorithms, and big data technology, the autonomous action capabilities of weapon systems will be greatly improved, and the situation of autonomous confrontation of weapon systems will become more and more common. In specific combat fields, such as cyberspace and electromagnetic spectrum, humans can only rely on intelligent weapon systems for autonomous confrontation. At the same time, with the emergence of hypersonic weapons and cluster warfare, wars will enter the era of “instant kills” and “group fights”, and using intelligent systems to autonomously fight is almost the only way out.

In the future, as the autonomous confrontation of intelligent weapon systems becomes the new normal, the combat mode will gradually change from “man in the loop” to “man on the loop”. The main characteristics of the new mode can be summarized as “in command, out of control”, that is, in most cases, human warriors play the role of supervisors, responsible for inputting target characteristics and setting rules of engagement before the war, observing battlefield engagements, etc. It should be pointed out that in the new mode, humans are still the final decision makers, and human warriors will autonomously enter and exit the combat chain as needed and take necessary intervention measures. The biggest advantage of the new mode is that it can free human warriors from complex decisions and focus on major decisions and key tasks. How to ensure that humans can take over control at any time will be the biggest challenge facing the development of human-machine collaboration technology in the future.

Cluster warfare brings new life to the war of attrition

In the era of cold weapons and mechanized warfare, attrition warfare was the basic way of fighting, and “eating more and eating less” was the basic rule for winning on the battlefield.

Since the 1970s, with the emergence of stealth technology, satellite positioning systems, and precision-guided weapons, the “more, less” war principle has been completely broken. In recent years, with the rapid development of sensor technology, bionics, miniaturization technology, and artificial intelligence technology, the concept of swarm warfare has once again attracted the attention of the military of various countries. The so-called swarm warfare refers to the centralized deployment of hundreds or thousands of intelligent weapons to attack targets from multiple directions. Compared with traditional combat methods, swarm warfare has four major advantages:

First, the miniaturization of a single platform greatly improves battlefield survivability; second, it is decentralized, and the loss of an individual does not affect the overall function; third, it is low-cost, large in quantity, and the combat cost-effectiveness is multiplied; fourth, it can implement saturation attacks and paralyze the enemy’s defense system. It is not difficult to see that cluster warfare can achieve the effect of “quantity is quality”, and therefore, it is considered a war of attrition in the intelligent era.

The U.S. military sees swarm warfare as a game-changer in warfare, and believes that swarm warfare is particularly suitable for dealing with anti-access/area denial threats. Currently, the U.S. Department of Defense is simultaneously targeting underwater, surface, and air, and promoting multiple swarm research and development projects, striving to have multi-dimensional space swarm combat capabilities. In addition, the various branches of the U.S. military are competing to develop swarm combat concepts. For example, the Marine Corps envisions using unmanned combat swarms as landing pioneers to perform tasks such as battlefield perception, mine clearance, and obstacle removal, creating conditions for Marines to rush ashore.

From underwater “wolf packs” to ground “ant swarms” to aerial “bee swarms”, swarm warfare will be prevalent in the future intelligent battlefield. “Human wave tactics” will be re-emerged in a new look, and the balance of the war of attrition will be extremely tilted towards the side with swarm warfare capabilities. The following scene may appear in the future: on one side, there are swarms of intelligent machines covering the sky and the sun, and on the other side, there are panicked, lonely human warriors…

現代國語:

當前,世界正處於智慧革命的前夜,人類社會正從「互聯網+」時代邁入「智能+」時代。近年來,在大數據、新型演算法和超級運算的推動下,人工智慧正在改變乃至顛覆所觸及的每個產業,戰爭也不例外。從水下潛航器到無人機集群,從預測性維修軟件到智慧決策助手,人工智慧正以前所未有的廣度與深度影響著戰爭的不同領域,推動著新一輪軍事變革,戰爭形態和麵貌正悄然被改變。

廟算為先,戰爭設計日益精細

《孫子兵法》曰:「夫未戰而廟算勝者,得算多也;未戰而廟算不勝者,得算少也。」縱觀人類戰爭史,「多算勝,少算不勝」是亙古不變的定理。

未來戰爭對「廟算」的依賴度有增無減,人工智慧至少可以從兩方面增強戰爭預判的有效性:

一是更精確地計算並預測戰爭結果。在先進演算法和超算能力的支撐下,人工智慧系統的計算和預測結果比人腦更加準確。二是藉助兵棋系統能更有效檢驗和優化作戰方案。例如,融入人工智慧的兵棋系統能夠和人開展人機對抗,有助於人們發現問題、找出弱項。特別是將深度學習等演算法引入兵棋系統後,智慧系統的行為將變得深邃多變,有助於突破人類的既定思維,增強兵棋推演的對抗性和真實性,達到優化方案的目的。此外,還可利用智慧兵棋系統開展機機對抗,提升推演的效率。

2015年2月,美國國防部推出了《兵棋推演與創新》備忘錄,並提出將機器學習引入兵棋推演。目前,蘭德公司、雷神公司已經開始這方面的嘗試。一旦將研發成熟的智慧軟件應用於兵棋推演,不僅能提高優化方案和預測戰局的水平,還能更精確地預測戰爭涉及的兵力規模、彈藥消耗、持續時間和保障需求等,顯著提升對戰爭設計的能力。

速度製勝,作戰節奏空前加快

在資訊時代,戰爭遵循「快吃慢」制勝法則,海灣戰爭以來的幾場戰爭中,美軍之所以能夠屢戰屢勝,其關鍵在於始終做到了「棋快一招」。

如今,人工智慧的反應速度已經完全「碾壓」人腦。 2016年,在一次模擬空戰中,美國辛辛那提大學研發的「阿爾法」智慧軟體操控F-15戰機,擊敗了由人駕駛的F-22戰機,原因就在於該智慧軟件的反應速度是人類大腦反應速度的250倍!今年10月,美國密蘇里大學地​​理空間情報中心公佈了一份研究成果顯示,該中心基於深度學習技術開發了一種演算法模型,能夠在42分鐘內搜尋並識別出某國東南沿海地區近9萬平方千米內的導彈發射場,速度比人類分析師快85倍,準確率達到專家級影像分析師水準。

正因如此,近年來,美、俄等軍隊將目光投向了人工智慧,意圖利用人工智慧的速度優勢,縮短己方在戰場上的決策週期,牢牢掌握行動優勢。今年7月,俄羅斯武器製造商卡拉什尼科夫公司宣稱,已開發出基於人工神經網絡的全自動戰鬥模塊,能做到發現即摧毀。另外,美軍則在研發自動化數據分析工具、自動目標識別軟件、機載智慧決策助理、數字化空中作戰規劃員等智慧工具,意圖在決策週期各環節上減輕情報和作戰人員的負擔,提高決策效率。而在今年11月,美國國防部演算法戰項目負責人呼籲:今後美軍採購的任何武器系統都應融入人工智慧。

可以預見,今後隨著越來越多的智慧化武器系統投入戰場,戰場上的作戰反應時間將越來越短,交戰行動將空前激烈,並最終超越人類的理解和應對能力。

自主對抗,作戰模式引發變革

20世紀以來,偵測技術的發展和資訊化浪潮下感知技術的進步,推動了「傳感器-射手-武器平台」這一人機協作式作戰鏈誕生。

隨著人工智慧技術的發展,能夠自動識別、鎖定和打擊目標的智慧化武器系統逐漸出現,並能取代人類執行簡單的決策命令。如美軍的艦載「宙斯盾」系統、以軍的「鐵穹」系統、俄軍的「競技場」主動防護系統、法軍的「鯊魚」系統,等等。不過,這些系統的智慧化程度目前還不高,自主交戰模式通常是最後一個選項。

未來,隨著傳感技術、新型演算法、大數據技術等智慧化技術群的進步,武器系統的自主行動能力將大幅提升,武器系統自主對抗的情況也越來越普遍。而在特定作戰領域,如網路空間和電磁頻譜領域,人類只能依托智慧化武器系統進行自主對抗。與此同時,隨著高超音速武器和集群作戰的出現,戰爭將進入「秒殺」和「群架」時代,利用智慧系統自主迎戰幾乎是唯一出路。

未來,隨著智慧化武器系統的自主對抗成為新常態,作戰模式將逐漸從「人在迴路中」轉變為「人在迴路」。新模式的主要特徵可概括為“指揮之中、控制之外”,即在多數情況下,人類戰士扮演監督員的角色,負責在開戰前輸入目標特徵和設定交戰規則,觀察戰場交戰情況等。需要指出的是,在新模式下人依然是最終決策者,人類戰士將根據需要自主進出作戰鏈,採取必要的干預措施。新模式的最大優勢是可以使人類戰士從紛繁複雜的決策中解放出來,聚焦於主要決策和關鍵任務。如何確保人類能夠隨時接管控制權,將是今後一段時期內,人機協同技術發展面臨的最大挑戰。

集群作戰,讓消耗戰重煥生機

在冷兵器和機械化戰爭時代,消耗戰是基本作戰方式,「多吃少」是戰場制勝的基本法則。

自上世紀70年代以來,隨著隱形技術、衛星定位系統、精確制導武器的登場,「多吃少」的戰爭法則被徹底打破。近年來,隨著傳感技術、仿生技術、微型化技術和人工智慧技術取得長足發展,集群式作戰構想再次受到各國軍隊的重視。所謂集群作戰,是指集中部署數百上千個智慧化武器,從多個方向對目標實施攻擊。與傳統作戰方式相比,集群作戰具備四大優勢:

一是單一平台小型化,戰場生存能力大幅提升;二是去中心化,個體的損失不影響整體功能;三是成本低廉,數量龐大,作戰效費比成倍提高;四是可實施飽和攻擊,癱瘓敵防禦體系。不難看出,集群作戰能夠達到「數量即質量」的效果,因此,被認為是智慧時代的消耗戰。

美軍將集群作戰視為戰爭遊戲規則的改變者,認為集群作戰尤其適合應對反介入/區域拒止威脅。當前,美國國防部同時瞄準水下、水面和空中,推進多個集群研發項目,力求具備多維空間集群作戰能力。此外,美軍各軍種正競相開發集群作戰概念,如海軍陸戰隊設想讓無人作戰集群充當登陸先鋒,執行戰場感知、排雷除障等任務,為陸戰隊員搶灘上陸創造條件。

從水下“狼群”到地面“蟻群”再到空中“蜂群”,集群作戰將在未來智慧化戰場上大行其道。 「人海戰術」將改頭換面重新登場,消耗戰的天平將向具備集群作戰能力的一方極度傾斜。未來可能出現這一場景:一邊是遮天蔽日、蜂擁而至的智慧機器,另一邊是驚慌失措、形單影隻的人類戰士…

中國原創軍事資源:http://www.mod.gov.cn/gfbw/jmsd/4801288.html