Chinese military university urged to revise AI course to ‘educate for war’

China’s military researchers have proposed a redesigned “AI principles and practice course” for graduate students with “educating for war” at its centre, embedding combat scenarios to better prepare future officers for intelligent warfare.

Researchers from the National University of Defence Technology’s College of Intelligence Science and Technology outlined their proposal in the July issue of the journal Defence Industry Conversion in China.

The initiative comes as China seeks to cultivate more military personnel with the technical skills to use artificial intelligence (AI) in future warfare. The researchers said existing course cases lacked sufficient “military flavour” and needed to be redesigned to better serve the practical needs of “educating for war”.

As global militaries explore the use of AI in planning, training, and combat, the technology is also changing what the troops need to learn, with China aiming to train personnel capable of applying emerging technologies to armed operations.

01:48

US bans imports of new Chinese robots and power inverters in latest tech crackdown

The university introduced “Principles and Practice of Artificial Intelligence” as a tailored course for non-AI science and engineering graduate students in its 2022 autumn semester.