Emerging tech has new Army leaders warning troops can't AI their way to victory on the battlefield

Gen.Christopher LaNeve, the Army vice chief serving as acting chief of staff, outlined on Monday how he hopes to narrow the service’s sweeping modernization push after years of experimentation with drones, artificial intelligence and other emerging technology."There was a lot, a lot of motion," LaNeve told a small group of reporters.

"It was almost like everything was being transformed at once.""You can't AI yourself to be the best maneuver brigade commander out there," LaNeve said.The Army Transformation Initiative pushed new technology rapidly into formations and encouraged experimentation across the board.Army leaders credited that effort with accelerating change but acknowledged Monday that its breadth created enormous activity across the force.Adam Telle, assistant secretary of the Army nominee for US President Donald Trump, during a Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, May 13, 2025.

The US defense secretary earlier this month ordered a reduction of the US military's highest-ranking officers, potentially setting up a clash with Congress, which must approve any such adjustments.(Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg via Getty Images)INSIDE AMERICA'S LASER REVOLUTION AS THE MILITARY NEARS BIG BATTLEFIELD BREAKTHROUGHThe branch is now preparing to unveil "How the Army Fights," a new framework intended to turn years of experimentation into a more focused set of decisions about what technology the service will prioritize, where it belongs in Army formations and how the force will organize and spend for future wars."The Army cannot and should not modernize everything at once," the new blueprint states.

"The answer is focused modernization."Sgt.Maj.

of the Army Michael Weimer said experimentation through the technology push produced necessary learning, but insisted that the service had reached a point where it needed to "drop the chalk line and actually start making some decisions."Those decisions include which technologies ...