Ferris Mx’s Reviews > Project Maven: A Marine Colonel, His Team, and the Dawn of AI Warfare > Status Update

In one dated example, a convoy route in Iraq was previously categorized as among the most dangerous routes in an area. But because convoys stopped using the route, an early algorithmic system recommended it as one of the safer routes because there had been no recent recorded attacks.

Pfaff thought AI might offer ways to minimize collateral harm, but that automation might ultimately grow the volume of harm. Jevons Paradox, well-known in economics, suggests that technologies that improve efficiency and lower costs lead to increased consumption. AI-enabled systems are designed to serve more targets, faster, and make it easier to strike them. It is hard to imagine this will lead to fewer strikes.

In April 2025, former CENTCOM AI adviser Andrew Moore warned that he had learned that chatbots could easily reinforce cognitive bias. Depending on the way a question was asked, he said, AI could deliver multiple erroneous reasons to support the questioner's desired end state, such as undertaking a lethal strike or a raid, spluttering out why something false might be true. ("here's why this strike is valid and legal")

Erik Kurilla ... hired former Google AI expert Andrew Moore, and spent much of 2023 practicing how to get through a thousand targets a day, cooperating with the UK and others in a series of experimental ninety-day sprints.

My visit required the rigmarole of any meeting at a spy agency. Courteous background checks and vetting; no phones, laptop, or smartwatch allowed; and one step more curious: writing down not only the make and model, but also the serial number inscribed on my tape recorder, which I resolved never to use again for any interview after the visit.

"Multiple people told me Poggemeyer slammed a locker near a co-worker so hard it brought the office to a momentary standstill."
Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!

The Marine Corps tended to endorse fury as a way to get things done. "Marines may use anger to accomplish missions with energy and focus," reads one official service document. "Properly channeled anger can motivate us to work toward goals and it alerts us that something is wrong and we need to respond."