The South China Morning Post (May 4) quoted Adam Ni, China researcher from Macquarie University in Sydney, as saying that China has set up two major research organisations focused on AI unmanned systems and present trends suggest that the gap with the US will narrow as China is moving quickly to develop its military AI capability. He said China’s pursuit of artificial intelligence for its People’s Liberation Army forces is aimed at leveraging the emerging technology to enhance national power.  He added that the PLA Daily has repeatedly outlined possible scenarios of future warfare featuring AI. In November, it carried a description of a swarm of drones, operated by a cloud “brain”, that could detect a target enemy and automatically attack. Another scenario referred to a malicious code that could invade a rival’s network, learn its systems and steal its secrets. Future “intelligent” wars will simultaneously incorporate land, sea, sky and cyber combat, the report said. They will be fought with smart weapons and systems, supported by AI and capable of analysing situations, undertaking tasks and missions on their own. In January, Li Minghai from PLA Daily introduced the notion of the “algorithm game”, which could predict what happens on the battlefield, and may therefore offer a cognitive advantage to Chinese troops. Li Minghai said “The party that grasps the advantages of the algorithm in future wars will be able to quickly and accurately predict the situation on the battlefield, innovate the optimal method of warfare, and achieve the ultimate war purpose of ‘winning before the war’.”