VCU researcher finds AI could weaken how national security professionals respond in crisis

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- While artificial intelligence (AI) has been creeping into people's lives over the last several years, research from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) is showing how professionals in national security are changing how they make decisions as a result.

VCU researcher Christopher Whyte explored how emergency management and professionals in the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom and Slovenia responded to simulated security threats involving AI.

The results showed that when dealing with what VCU calls "completely AI-driven threats," many professionals were more doubtful of their abilities.

According to an announcement from VCU Public Relations on the morning of Wednesday, March 19, the experiment showed professionals doubted their experience and were afraid to act when they faced an AI-based threat, despite their education and experience.

“These results show that AI plays a major role in driving participants to become more hesitant, more cautious,” Whyte said, “except under fairly narrow circumstances.”

“These are people that believe the totality of what they do — their professional mission and the institutional mission that they support — could be overtaken by AI,” he added.

Whyte, who led the study, said this is due to an idea called the "Great Machines" theory.

Similar to past technological inventions like the telegraph or radio waves, the "Great Machines" theory proposes that AI can be beneficial and transformative. However, it can also pose risks and create a false belief in its power, especially if people are worried that their jobs may be replaced by AI.

The study found that those who thought their jobs could be replaced acted recklessly and accepted unnecessary risks, emphasizing the dangers of AI's involvement in national security crisis.

“People have variable views on whether AI is about augmentation, or whether it really is something that’s going to replace them,” Whyte said. “And that meaningfully changes how people will react in a crisis.”