TITLE:
AI versus AI: Human Engagement via Synthesized Command (SYNTHComm) in AI Warfare
AUTHORS:
Elise Annett, James Giordano
KEYWORDS:
Artificial Intelligence (AI), Cognitive Warfare, Human-Machine Teaming, Synthesized Command (SYNTHComm), Command and Control (C2), Autonomous Systems, AI-versus-AI Engagement, Military Ethics
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Research,
Vol.2 No.3,
August
18,
2026
ABSTRACT: Autonomous systems have the potential to irrevocably reshape the battlefield. War could unfold at a tempo evermore defined by technology and iteratively unbound by deliberative pause or human presence at the point of lethal execution. Ethical engagement evolves beyond exclusive reliance on human moral cognition, instead relying upon the integration of algorithmic thresholds that are calibrated for speed and efficiency. Concomitantly, human agency, the foundational core of command, converges with data-driven immediacy. Decision loops engage machine learning systems to accelerate into almost instantaneous computations that drive resultant action(s). Given this reality, the near-future battlespace may be governed less by deliberation and more by design, wherein automation, velocity, and efficiency dominate. This transformation will overhaul command judgment, subordinating it to systems built for speed and vast scale. Thus, the character of warfare will change, and we posit that this will demand a revised paradigm of command and a revisitation and renewal of command responsibility. Toward such ends, we propose and define a dialectical command framework that represents a synthesis of human cognition and artificial intelligence (which we refer to as SYNTHComm), which is designed to realign the ethics of force projection in an era of increasingly autonomous systems.