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Project Maven

A Marine Colonel, His Team, and the Dawn of AI Warfare

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Project Maven

By: Katrina Manson
Narrated by: Katrina Manson
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The dramatic story of the secretive decade-long Pentagon campaign to bring AI-powered targeting systems onto the battlefield.

In 2017, a small crew gathered in a windowless Pentagon room to put AI at the heart of how America makes war. Led by a Marine Corps colonel haunted by the deaths of US troops and prospect of AI-enhanced rivals, the Project Maven team raced to send AI into combat, igniting controversy and forever changing the US military. Summoning the mayhem of a tech startup, the group wrestled Pentagon bureaucrats and each other, enlisted an initially reluctant Silicon Valley, and convinced US forces to deploy little-tested AI systems in hot wars. Maven fielded algorithms to identify targets at speed and scale, developed AI-infused command systems, and learned where AI fails. Today, its lessons are folded into developing autonomous technology set to be on the frontlines of future war. Based on more than 200 interviews with Project Maven insiders and opponents, this compelling narrative explains how AI warfare, once the stuff of apocalyptic science fiction, has become a reality

©2026 Katrina Manson (P)2026 Recorded Books Computer Science Freedom & Security Machine Theory & Artificial Intelligence Military Politics & Government War Warfare Technology Solider
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An exceptional, dispationate report of the enactment of AI technology in the military. The author obviously has a firm grasp of the technology and her comprehensive knowledge of this context obviously commanded a high degree of respect by people working in the area providing her with access to key players. This was then used to report the twists and turns of rollout in a highly engaging and authoritative approach.

Authoritative assessment of AI rollout

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Far from a total failure, but the book is largely based on interviews with a colonel who can't talk about the effectiveness of Maven in specific operations.
There's no perspective from the people operating the Maven system in the field. Nor any technical information from programmers or developers who worked on the system.
This is a book about mid-level military bureaucracy and issues around systems integration, not the insightful vista into military AI technology I was hoping to read.

Hits the wrong targets

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