Inside the Pentagon’s AI War Machine

The U.S. is fighting its first full-scale AI war in Iran — but key details remain largely hidden from Americans and the world. Which military decisions are being automated? How well does AI really perform on the battlefield? Can guardrails prevent fatal errors? Katrina Manson’s timely and deeply reported new book, Project Maven: A Marine Colonel, His Team, and the Dawn of AI Warfare, lifts the lid on this hidden world. In this episode of The World Unpacked, Katrina tells host Jon Bateman about the creation of America’s AI war machine, the rise of Palantir, and the fully autonomous weapons already being tested. Host: Follow Jon on X: Guest: Katrina Manson —

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Inside the Pentagon’s AI War Machine is an episode from DiploPod by Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

This episode is 00:53:06 long.

This episode was published on Mar 27, 2026.

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