Hello, dear website visitor. This is the first (of hopefully many) article written by an avid reader of Strategy and Wargaming. Tom, is his name, and his article delves into the possibilities of using Artificial Intelligence to better replicate famous generals’ tactics and behaviours. Thanks a lot, Tom!

With so much being said about AI and how it will change our lives (or destroy us!) one area that we, as wargaming enthusiasts, are likely to benefit from is playing against the computer. This isn’t because the AI will be able to issue orders faster, be ultra-efficient with resources or come up with cunning ways to defeat the human adversary. It’s precisely the opposite, especially if you want to face off against a current or historical figure.

AI is already able to imitate famous people in its written responses – just look at Chat GPT ‘behaving’ like Elvis – able to respond and even write music in a similar vein. What’s this got to do with wargaming? Well, I’m no expert in AI but what I do know is that AI has the ability to consume huge amounts of information and turn that data into meaningful outputs, without prejudice. In the case of wargaming, we will be able to learn about historical figures, such as Napolean and then replicate his personality and traits (both good and bad) in a game far beyond anything we have experienced before.

Take the battle of Waterloo for example and assume you’re playing the role of Wellington. The moment you deviate from what historically happened current AI adapts in a way it’s been pre-programmed, often constrained by certain mechanics and most likely not in a way the real historical commanders would have behaved. This will all change when AI arrives in our games and Napolean and his army will react as they would have done on that day in 1815.

The ability to play against these characters is very exciting and gives wargaming enthusiasts the best possibility of facing down these historical figures. This will be particularly fun when looking back over battles or events that have been historically controversial and provide some excellent ‘what if’ moments.

The eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed I mentioned Valery Gerasimov (Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces and First Deputy Minister of Defence) in the opening sentence – not a particularly renowned military leader given the current debacle in Ukraine but perhaps a useful case study. With enough information, AI will likely be able to ‘red team’ an adversary. It will be able to predict, with reasonable accuracy, his actions and thoughts based on all its available knowledge. A cursory look at his Wikipedia page already gives a wealth of insight into the man and you can start to form a picture of how he thinks. This could in theory allow military planners to better anticipate the Russian military’s next moves, including the subordinate commanders. Of course, militaries already conduct this activity and do attempt to role-play adversary commanders but there are always inherent biases and fallacies that introduce doubt. Yes, it’s a very ‘Minority Report’ but that’s possibly the world we are entering!