Beast in the Machine: How Robotics and AI Will Transform Warfare and the Future of Human Conflict

“Beast in the Machine is an incredible resource for raising public awareness and education around this revolution in warfare.” —Booklist

A defense technology expert and military leader reveals the future of robotic warfare, and illuminates the path to navigate the approaching storm of global change.

The world is plunging into a new era of warfare dominated by robotic systems and artificial intelligence. As drone warfare and autonomous weapons fill the headlines, militaries, governments, and concerned citizens are asking urgent questions about the future of conflict. Author George M. Dougherty provides much-needed answers from a unique perspective as a senior military leader of US Air Force science and technology and a strategic business consultant to companies facing disruptive change in their industries.

Beast in the Machine offers a fascinating exploration of the future of combat. It takes the reader on a whirlwind journey through previously secret robotic warfare history from the World Wars to the War on Terror, and to today’s lethal battlefields in Ukraine and beyond. With gripping combat examples and easy-to-understand explanations of emerging technologies, Dougherty reveals the trends driving change and helps us to anticipate and prepare for what comes next.

Informed by insider expertise as well as a humane moral perspective, Dougherty tackles this controversial subject head-on. In these pages, readers will learn:

• How the robotic military revolution is disrupting the balance of power, undermining US security and making all of us targets
• Why today’s drones and autonomous weapons are only the start of the revolution—and what comes next
• Why familiar military platforms like tanks, ships, and airplanes will be replaced by robotic systems that may look radically different
• How self-organizing drone swarms in the “atmospheric littoral” may become a dominant force on the future battlefield
• What steps can ensure the ethical use of autonomous weapons and AI
• Which threats from military AI are more dangerous than artificial superintelligence, and how to avert them

The US and other global democracies must navigate this disruptive era wisely, or risk becoming its victims. Beast in the Machine is a timely invitation for all of us to join the conversation on the future of human armed struggle . . . while there’s still time to shape what’s coming.

An active duty and reserve officer in the U.S. Air Force, George M. Dougherty has served as a senior leader in defense laboratories, military service headquarters in the Pentagon, and in the office of the Secretary of Defense. He coauthored the Air Force’s science and technology strategy. In addition, he is a business strategist who helps leading science and technology-driven companies to navigate disruptive change. Colonel Dougherty has written numerous articles for defense journals and given invited lectures on disruptive innovation and future combat doctrine. He holds three engineering degrees, including a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley and an MBA from Cornell University. He lives in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC, with his wife, a biomedical scientist.