ABC News Daily Why Iran is just the beginning of AI warfare
Mar 11, 2026
Toby Walsh, chief scientist at the UNSW AI Institute and AI policy adviser, discusses AI's role in modern conflict. He traces how AI can aid intelligence, target selection and logistics in Iran and beyond. He also covers the clash over military limits for AI and why international guardrails matter.
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AI Rapidly Scales Target Selection
- AI is being used to gather intelligence and select targets, enabling over a thousand targets to be identified on day one of the Iran conflict.
- Toby Walsh attributes that scale to AI's ability to sift diverse data and produce ranked target lists far faster than humans.
Anthropic Founded By OpenAI Refugees
- Anthropic was founded by former OpenAI staff who wanted a more cautious approach to deployment.
- That origin shaped its principled limits and public stance against military use of certain AI applications.
Anthropic's Red Lines Spark Pentagon Fall Out
- Anthropic imposed two red lines: no large-scale domestic surveillance and no use in autonomous weapons, then clashed with the US Department of Defense.
- The Pentagon responded by blacklisting Anthropic and signing an alternate contract with OpenAI.