By Anri Amir David, Forbes Councils Member.
for Forbes Business Council COUNCIL POST
Anri Amir, Founder/CEO Black Wall Global, (form.) General Secretariat & SEA to President Intn. Bureau of Criminal Investigation CYBERPOL
The world’s superpowers continue to compete in the post-Covid-19 world, and a new kind of arms race is transpiring, one that’s happening in the digital shadows. Traditional military warfare has become too costly and too traceable, so countries are turning to artificial intelligence (AI) and cyber technologies as the next frontier of deterrence and dominance.
As a FinTech, National and Cyber Security expert, I see this evolution as a defining shift of our time. What was once a battle for information is now a battle for interpretation. Where algorithms dictate what’s real, what’s actionable and what’s a threat. The age of cyber conflict has unleashed what some analysts are calling cognitive warfare—the battle for perception, accuracy and predictive advantage.
China: The Acceleration Of Military–Civil Fusion 2.0
China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has long viewed AI as the foundation of “intelligentized warfare,” and its aspirations have exponentially increased since 2021. As part of its military–civil fusion strategy, China has deployed a nationwide network of AI research hubs and dual-use data centers for both civilian and defense applications. The boundary between academic research, commercial development and military application is increasingly permeable, and that is by design.
While early PLA investments focused on intelligence analysis and target recognition, China is now leveraging large language models (LLMs) and generative AI systems to enhance battlefield decision-making, propaganda efforts and information control. These systems can synthesize intelligence reports, simulate scenarios and even create narratives designed to shape perception at scale.
That’s a significant shift from 2021, when AI was more of a supporting technology. Now AI is at the center of operational strategy. Chinese researchers are experimenting with autonomous swarming drones, adaptive radar systems and AI-driven logistics. All aimed at accelerating the pace, removing human error and out-maneuvering the competition before shots are ever fired.
Meanwhile, China’s 2025 Position Paper on Regulating Military Applications of AI publicly reassures “human-in-the-loop” control and responsible autonomous systems usage. Yet this outward signaling also tactically places China as a rule-maker in emerging global AI governance.
United States: From Innovation Leadership To Deployment Challenge
The United States continues to be a front-runner in AI research and development, but the challenge has shifted from innovation to implementation. Since 2021, the U.S. Department of Defense has created the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) to unify fragmented AI initiatives across the services and accelerate deployment at scale.
American electromagnetic and cyber warfare experts continue to operate under the core principles of operational focus, agility and global reach, as outlined in the FM 3-12 doctrine. But as more and more warfare extends into the digital and cognitive domains, the focus has shifted from network defense to choreographing intelligent systems that can anticipate, adapt and respond autonomously.
The U.S. Special Operations Command has made tangible progress toward integrating AI into mission planning, surveillance and real-time decision support. However, bureaucratic hurdles, legacy systems and data integration slow full adoption across the broader defense ecosystem.
In the meantime, Washington has sought to constrain China’s military AI potential through semiconductor export controls designed to keep advanced chips (such as NVIDIA’s H2O chip) required for training large AI models out of reach. While these controls have slowed China’s progress in the short term, Chinese firms are already developing substitute supply chains and software innovations that rely on more efficient algorithms rather than raw hardware power. The so-called “hardware choke-point” strategy is proving harder to sustain as global demand for AI infrastructure grows.
To maintain its advantage, the U.S. is betting on scale and velocity. Projects like Replicator, launched in 2024, will deploy thousands of low-cost autonomous systems within two years, redefining deterrence in AI-driven conflict.
From Data Theft To Data Distortion
Cyber warfare has evolved from stealing secrets to reshaping them. Generative AI innovations bring the capability for both state and non-state agents to produce fake video, voice or sensor data that distorts situational awareness. From the military standpoint, the perception battlefield is now as key as the terrain battlefield.
AI systems can already produce deceptive signals, falsify satellite imagery or flood communication channels with synthetic content designed to overwhelm decision-makers. When multiple autonomous systems interact, especially agentic systems, the risk of unintended escalation grows.
The shift to machine-driven decision-making and away from human-activated operations poses basic ethical and strategic questions. How do you maintain accountability when algorithms act faster than oversight can keep up? How do you prevent automated retaliation in the midst of cyber war? These are immediate challenges facing every nation that invests in AI-enabled defense.
The New Logic Of Deterrence Has Global Implications
Both China and the United States now openly profess to be champions of “responsible AI in military applications.” But as with nuclear deterrence in the mid-20th century, norms are developing after the technology. The speed of AI development is much greater than the speed of global regulation.
Allied democracies, including Israel, Japan and the European Union, are attempting to create ethical guidelines and risk frameworks, but enforcement mechanisms are currently mostly symbolic. Without binding international standards, AI warfare is emerging in a legal and ethical gray area.
At the same time, the barrier to entry for cyber warfare has never been lower. With access to open-source AI models and affordable computing resources, smaller nations can now develop capabilities that once required state-level investment. This democratization of cyber power further undermines strategic balance and creates new fronts for disruption and misinformation.
The result is an uneasy equilibrium. Both Washington and Beijing understand the catastrophic potential of uncontrolled AI escalation, yet neither can afford to slow down. Each side’s innovation becomes the other’s justification to accelerate.
Innovation Requires Restraint
The competition between the U.S. and China in artificial intelligence is, in part, about military supremacy. But it’s also about defining the rules of the digital age. AI is already reshaping warfare. The real test will be whether nations can harness these technologies responsibly before they outpace our ability to govern them.
National security will depend on strategic restraint and the wisdom to decide when not to let machines decide for us. The last decade was about building smarter systems; the next will be about proving that humanity can remain smarter still.