The picture looks like a video game. But the armies of the future are using and will increasingly use artificial intelligence in conflict zones, NATO says. (Photo: NATO)

The picture looks like a video game. But the armies of the future are using and will increasingly use artificial intelligence in conflict zones, NATO says. (Photo: NATO)

According to the financial programming law extending to 2025, Luxembourg will contribute €25m to the new €1b fund called “NATO for innovation”. The focus is on dual-use technologies to compete with Russia and China.

No one has doubted it: the battlefields of the future will be digital. Two years after deciding to implement an initiative on emerging and disruptive technologies, NATO members approved in June the idea of creating a special €1b fund for dual-use technologies and a civil-military Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA).

Both projects are to be operational by the Madrid Summit in 2022.

According to the financial programming law, Luxembourg will contribute almost €25 million over four years to this initiative (€6.4 million next year, €6 million per year in 2023, 2024 and 2025).

The money, €70 million a year for 15 years, will be invested in startups and technologies in seven designated areas: artificial intelligence, data and computing, autonomous systems, quantum technologies, biotechnology and human enhancement, hypersonic technologies and space.

DIANA will be based in Europe and Washington.

In October, NATO presented its first strategy on the development and use of artificial intelligence. The armies of the Atlantic bloc are also preparing for a revolution in terms of communication, due to quantum technology.

This article in Paperjam. It has been translated and edited for Delano.

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