Playful technologies?

On the Promise and Risks of Artificial Intelligence in Wargaming

Abstract

Wargames are regarded as a suitable instrument through which practitioners may anticipate the complexity and unpredictability of future lived experience by means of ludic procedures. Over the past decade, so-called wargaming has not only experienced a renaissance within military contexts but has also been rearticulated as a prioritized tool for learning and training. In this regard, the integration of technologies from the field of artificial intelligence – particularly so-called Large Language Models (LLMs) – is expected to assist in managing the emergent contingencies of modern warfare. Building on the promises attached both to military wargaming and to the implementation of LLMs within such practices, this contribution focuses, on the one hand, on the epistemological foundations of wargaming, with and without computational augmentation. On the other hand, by outlining the ethical risks implied by these automation strategies, it raises the question of what consequences the integration of technical agency entails for the pedagogical aspirations of wargaming and for ethically informed decision-making processes. In this context, the article further interrogates how the epistemological status of wargaming itself is being transformed through the turn to automation.