September 25, 2014

The Coming Swarm: The Cost-Imposing Value of Mass

In the second preview of the forthcoming report, Robotics on the Battlefield Part II: The Coming Swarm, Fellow and 20YY Warfare Initiative Director Paul Scharre explores the cost-imposing value of mass. Using a simple vignette of two adversaries locked in a competition of innovation and countermeasures, this preview explains how large numbers of low-cost systems can be used to impose costs on adversaries by overwhelming an enemy's defenses.

Author

  • Paul Scharre

    Executive Vice President and Director of Studies

    Paul Scharre is the Executive Vice President and Director of Studies at CNAS. He is the award-winning author of Four Battlegrounds: Power in the Age of Artificial Intelligence...

  • Podcast
    • April 29, 2021
    Fire and Ice

    In this week’s edition of the SpyTalk podcast, Jeff Stein goes deep on the CIA’s looming eviction from Afghanistan with Lisa Curtis, a longtime former CIA, State Department an...

    By Lisa Curtis, Jeff Stein, Jeanne Meserve & Alma Katsu

  • Commentary
    • Texas National Security Review
    • June 2, 2020
    The Militarization of Artificial Intelligence

    Militaries are racing to adopt artificial intelligence (AI) with the aim of gaining military advantage over competitors. And yet, there is little understanding of AI’s long-te...

    By Paul Scharre

    • Commentary
    • Wired
    • May 19, 2020
    Are AI-Powered Killer Robots Inevitable?

    In war, speed kills. The soldier who is a split second quicker on the draw may walk away from a firefight unscathed; the ship that sinks an enemy vessel first may spare i...

    By Paul Scharre

  • Commentary
    • The New York Times
    • February 12, 2020
    The Iranian Missile Strike Did Far More Damage Than Trump Admits

    Over 100 American soldiers have been treated for traumatic brain injuries following Iran’s missile strike on Al Asad Air Base in western Iraq. The strike came in retaliation f...

    By Loren DeJonge Schulman & Paul Scharre

View All Reports View All Articles & Multimedia