Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing the way we think about warfare. Autonomous systems, AI-assisted targeting, unmanned aircraft and increasingly sophisticated weapons are moving decisions once made entirely by humans closer to machines.

While writing my geopolitical techno-thriller An Unlikely War, I explored what might happen if that technological evolution went much further — and one side in a major international conflict gained an overwhelming advantage through AI-controlled weapons.

The novel is fiction. But the questions behind it are increasingly real.

What happens when a weapon can identify a threat, calculate a response and act faster than a human being can? How much control should we be prepared to delegate to machines? And perhaps most importantly: what happens when an adversary develops a capability that its opponents cannot immediately counter?

Those questions became the technological foundation of An Unlikely War. They are also questions that governments, militaries, researchers and the technology industry are confronting today.

AI Weapons Are No Longer Science Fiction

The idea of machines playing an increasingly important role in warfare is no longer confined to science fiction. AI is already being used to assist with surveillance, intelligence analysis, target recognition, navigation and the operation of unmanned systems.

The critical distinction is how much decision-making authority is given to the machine. There is a significant difference between AI helping a human identify a potential target and a weapon being allowed to select and engage that target without meaningful human intervention.

Speed makes this particularly important. In a future conflict involving hypersonic weapons, autonomous aircraft and AI-assisted defense systems, decisions may need to be made in seconds. A human commander could increasingly find themselves supervising a battle being analyzed and fought at machine speed.

That possibility fascinated me as a writer. Instead of asking whether AI could make a weapon more capable, I began asking a different question: what happens when an entire military advantage depends upon it?

Taking the Technology Further in An Unlikely War

In An Unlikely War, I took these developments several steps beyond what exists today.

One of the central technologies is the Omega Manta, an extremely advanced combat aircraft capable of operating at extraordinary speed and altitude. It is supported by AISJ missiles, intelligent weapons designed to pursue and engage targets using advanced autonomous technology.

I deliberately gave this technology capabilities beyond today's military systems. The purpose wasn't to predict a particular aircraft or missile. It was to explore what could happen strategically if one nation suddenly possessed weapons so advanced that conventional forces struggled to counter them.

Technology of that kind wouldn't simply change an aircraft. It could change the balance between nations.

And that raises a larger question at the heart of the novel: if AI gives one side an overwhelming military advantage, how long can that advantage remain under human control?

The Human Problem Behind Autonomous Weapons

The most difficult questions surrounding autonomous weapons may not ultimately be about speed, range or computing power. They may be about human responsibility.

If an AI-enabled system makes a mistake, who is responsible? The programmer who helped design it? The commander who authorized its use? The operator supervising it? Or the government that deployed it?

There is also the problem of escalation. Machines can process information and react at speeds humans cannot match. In a confrontation between technologically advanced powers, faster decision-making could provide an enormous advantage — but it could also reduce the time available for human judgement.

That creates a paradox. The more capable these systems become, the more tempting it may be to give them greater autonomy. Yet the more autonomy they receive, the more important the question of human control becomes.

This tension between technological power and human judgement is one of the ideas I wanted to explore through An Unlikely War. The machines may become extraordinarily sophisticated, but the decisions surrounding war remain profoundly human.

Why Science Fiction Matters to the AI Debate

Science fiction has always allowed writers and readers to explore technology before society has to deal with all of its consequences in the real world.

We can take an emerging technology, push it beyond its current limits and ask what happens next. Not because every fictional prediction will become reality, but because stories allow us to examine the choices people might face if technology develops in unexpected ways.

That was my approach with An Unlikely War. The Omega Manta and AISJ weapons are fictional, but the underlying questions are not. What happens when technological superiority changes the balance of power? What happens when machines become faster than the humans responsible for controlling them? And what happens when an opponent discovers that even the most advanced technology may have a vulnerability?

For me, that is where AI becomes particularly interesting territory for fiction. The technology matters, but ultimately the story is about what people choose to do with it.

How Close Is Fiction to Reality?

We are not living in the technological world depicted in An Unlikely War. But some of the building blocks that inspired it — artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, unmanned aircraft and increasingly rapid military decision-making — are already part of the real-world conversation.

The question is not whether the future will look exactly like science fiction. It almost certainly won't.

The more interesting question is how much of today's science fiction will influence the questions we need to answer tomorrow.

An Unlikely War is my fictional exploration of one possible answer.