The Triage Trap: When AI Speed Replaces Command Judgment

Military AI systems can create a "triage trap" by pre-filtering battlefield data, effectively making decisions before a human commander ever sees the alternatives. This critical vulnerability is not about over-trusting AI recommendations, but about the AI silently removing choice itself by presenting only a single, optimized course of action. Clever adversaries can learn to exploit these automated blind spots, using decoys and deceptive tactics to manipulate the AI's targeting priorities while their real forces maneuver freely. The solution requires redesigning doctrine to intentionally preserve human judgment, obligating systems to surface uncertainty and competing hypotheses even at the cost of speed.