The world’s first AI war

We are a month into Operation Epic Fury, and while the headlines focus on the smoke over Tehran, Tel Aviv, and US-friendly countries in the region, the real revolution is happening in the “kill chain” rooms.

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For the first time in history, we are not just watching a war; we are watching a competition between two rival architectures of AI, including the entertaining use of Algenerated deepfakes by both sides to manipulate public opinion in real time.

Inthe opening 12 hours of the conflict on Feb. 28, the US and Israel did notjust launch missiles; they launched very sophisticated algorithms that became the digital architects of the most efficient decapitation strike in military history. By the time the first sirens wailed in Tehran, Al hadalready processed petabytes of satellite imagery and intercepted signals to map out several high-value targets. The reported death of the Supreme Leader ‘was not a lucky shot; it was based on pinpoint calculation.

But if the West has the “Sword of Silicon,” Iran has responded with “Algorithm Draining.” What Iran has today is not the lumbering military of the past. The IRGC has pivoted to a “Mosaic Defense,” a decentralized network of autonomous cells that are said to be using Al-driven drone swarms to bleed the West dry. They are not trying to outshoot the US Navy; they are trying to confuse its sensors. By flooding the sky with $20,000 drones from the back of commercial vegetable trucks, they are forcing $4 million interceptors to fire into them.