Four Battlegrounds by Paul Scharre

FOUR BATTLEGROUNDS by Paul Scharre discusses “Power in the Age of Artificial Intelligence,” particularly from a military standpoint. Scharre is a former U.S. Army Ranger who is currently vice president and director of studies at the Center for a New American Security, a Washington, DC based think tank. Although a weighty, almost 500 page text, a significant portion (almost half) is devoted to Notes, Illustration Credits, Abbreviations and Acknowledgments, plus an Index. In the rest, Scharre presents his arguments regarding how “AI is changing war, and … also changing surveillance, disinformation, and other aspects of global peace and security,” especially in regard to these four areas: data, computing power, AI talent, and institutions. He refers to the “deep learning revolution” and “power dynamics” (especially between the US and China) and describes the “dark side” - how “the dangers from AI today come from people using the technology maliciously or carelessly, causing harm to others.” All of Scharre’s many notes support a myriad of facts (e.g., “China already publishes more AI papers than the United States”) and an enlightening analysis of points of contention. FOUR BATTLEGROUNDS received a starred review from Library Journal. For another recent perspective related to AI, see also “ChatGPT Heralds an Intellectual Revolution” by Henry Kissinger, Eric Schmidt, and Daniel Huttenlocher in The Wall Street Journal.