Robot dogs and AI drone swarms: How China could take advantage of DeepSeek for an era of war

China’s state-owned defense giant Norinco in February unveiled a military vehicle capable of autonomously conducting combat-support operations at 50 kilometers per hour.

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It was powered by DeepSeek, the company whose artificial intelligence (AI) model is the pride of China’s tech sector.

The Norinco P60’s release was touted by Communist Party officials in press statements as an early showcase of how Beijing is using DeepSeek and AI to catch up in its arms race with the United States, at a time when leaders in both countries have urged their militaries to prepare for conflict.

A Reuters review of hundreds of research papers, patents and procurement records gives a snapshot of the systematic effort by Beijing to harness AI for military advantage.

Specifics of how the systems behind China’s next-generation weapons work and the extent to which it has deployed them are a state secret, but procurement records and patents offer clues into Beijing’s progress toward capabilities like autonomous target recognition and real-time battlefield decision support in a way that mirrors US efforts.

Reuters couldn't establish if all the products had been built and patents don’t necessarily indicate operational technology.

The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and affiliates continue to use and look for Nvidia chips, including models under US export controls, according to the papers, tenders and patents.

Reuters could not determine if those chips were stockpiled before Washington imposed restrictions as the documents do not detail when the hardware used was exported. Patents filed as recently as June show their use by military-linked research institutes. In September 2022, the US Commerce Department banned exports to China of Nvidia’s popular A100 and H100 chips.