A few days ago, Katrina Manson's book, "Project Maven: A Marine Colonel, His Team, and the Dawn of AI Warfare," was released. It is the result of an investigation involving more than 200 interviews, narrating how algorithmic warfare was pushed forward by a small group of people against Pentagon inertia, to the point that it has now become a reality, used in Iran.

Parallel to the release of "Project Maven," the RAND Corporation—an influential body within American power—released its report on "The Chinese People's Liberation Army's Vision of Artificial Intelligence," describing it as a central pillar of the "transition to smart forces" phase. This is the third phase in military modernization, following "mechanization" and "informatization," which Xi Jinping identified as the path to building a world-class army by mid-century.

The report concludes, based on analysis of more than 100 articles in Chinese military and academic journals and statements from military leaders, that Beijing views AI integration as a direct path to matching or surpassing U.S. military capabilities, with a particular emphasis on enhancing "killing chains" and logistics.

Through this framework, researchers aim to provide a comprehensive picture of an army advancing toward automation and smart systems across all aspects of warfare, while operating under significant political and strategic pressure and demonstrating a willingness to accept considerable risk and doctrinaire lapses in technically immature areas.

Yet, a significant portion of the intellectual and scientific output associated with the Chinese army since 2024 has focused on using AI to enhance the effectiveness of "killing chains," the series of phases that begin with detection and reconnaissance and conclude with target destruction.

The development of Chinese killing chains rests on four fundamental pillars: integration among chain components, informational fusion across different domains, cooperation between multiple agents, and the enhancement of real-time data transfer and processing.

Even more noteworthy in the RAND report is the suggestion of a radical transformation in employing AI not only for execution but also in decision-making. For example, the Chinese army may use AI to address what it identifies as "weakness points in commanders' capabilities," develop advanced decision-support tools that could reshape command and control, and potentially expand AI applications into "cognitive warfare" and cyber operations, surpassing its current use in killing chains and logistics.