Why business is booming for military AI startups

"Building demand for AI is one thing. Getting militaries to adopt it is entirely another. 

A lot of countries are pushing the AI narrative, but they’re struggling to move from concept to deployment, says Arnaud Guérin, the CEO of Preligens, a French startup that sells AI surveillance. That’s partly because the defense industry in most countries is still usually dominated by a clutch of large contractors, which tend to have more expertise in military hardware than AI software, he says."

"Militaries are responding to the call. NATO announced on June 30 that it is creating a $1 billion innovation fund that will invest in early-stage startups and venture capital funds developing “priority” technologies such as artificial intelligence, big-data processing, and automation.

Since the war started, the UK has launched a new AI strategy specifically for defense, and the Germans have earmarked just under half a billion for research and artificial intelligence within a $100 billion cash injection to the military."

"In a report last year, outlining steps the United States should take to be up to speed in AI by 2025, the NSCAI called on the US military to invest $8 billion a year into these technologies or risk falling behind China.  

The Chinese military likely spends at least $1.6 billion a year on AI, according to a report by the Georgetown Center for Security and Emerging Technologies, and in the US there is already a significant push underway to reach parity, says Lauren Kahn, a research fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations."

"European countries, which tend to be more cautious about adopting new technologies, are also spending more money on AI, says Heiko Borchert, co-director of the Defense AI Observatory at the Helmut Schmidt University in Hamburg, Germany. 

The French and the British have identified AI as a key defense technology, and the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, has earmarked $1 billion to develop new defense technologies."

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