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

★ 2026 Financial Times and Standard Chartered Business Book of the Year — Longlist ★ 2026 Financial Times and Standard Chartered Business Book of the Year — Shortlist

Katrina Manson investigates the Pentagon’s effort to bring artificial intelligence into military operations through Project Maven. Beginning with Marine colonel Drew Cukor and a small team in 2017, she follows their battles with bureaucracy, technology companies, and the limits of the systems they hoped to deploy. Interviews with insiders and opponents illuminate the controversy at Google, the expanding role of defense technology firms, and the pressure to identify targets faster. The book asks how commanders can judge reliability and responsibility when increasingly complex algorithms become part of decisions about life and death.

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Publication date: 2026-03-24
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 416
ISBN: 9781324123316

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