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

「梅文計畫」：一位陸戰隊上校、他的團隊，以及AI戰爭的黎明

當人工智慧開始辨識目標、協助指揮，甚至左右戰場上的生死決策，科幻小說中的AI戰爭便已成為現實。本書透過逾200位計畫內部人士與反對者的訪談，首度完整揭開美軍「梅文計畫」的祕密歷史，直擊五角大廈、矽谷科技巨頭與現代戰爭交會的關鍵現場。

2017年，一支小型團隊聚集在五角大廈一間沒有窗戶的房間裡，準備將人工智慧置於美國戰爭體系的核心。領導者是作風強硬的美國海軍陸戰隊上校德魯・庫克（Drew Cukor）。美軍士兵的傷亡，以及未來可能與配備AI技術的中國交戰，都驅使他加速推動這項任務。「梅文計畫」（Project Maven）團隊與時間賽跑，試圖讓AI正式投入實戰；這項行動不僅引發巨大爭議，也永遠改變了美國軍事發展的方向。

如同一家陷入混亂、快速成長的科技新創，梅文團隊不僅要對抗五角大廈的官僚體制，也必須處理內部的衝突與歧見。他們說服起初態度保留的矽谷加入，推動Palantir迅速壯大，並將亞馬遜、微軟等公司開發的演算法送入真實戰場。梅文計畫運用科技高速、大規模辨識攻擊目標，開發融合AI的指揮系統，同時也逐漸認識到人工智慧可能失靈的方式與代價。

然而，讓機器自主做出生死決定的可能性，引發美軍各階層人士的不安，也促使數千名Google員工集體抗議。儘管如此，如今由梅文計畫催生的AI系統已遍及美軍所有軍種，其累積的經驗更被納入自主軍事技術的開發，而這些技術很可能出現在未來戰爭的最前線。

梅文計畫及其留下的影響，正位於多股時代浪潮的交會點：美國對全球霸權衰退的焦慮、人工智慧滲透社會各層面的科技革命、科技巨頭日益擴張的權力、無所不在的監控，以及中國軍事力量的崛起。當川普第二任政府大舉投資軍事AI與自主武器，聯合國祕書長則呼籲禁止「殺手機器人」，本書追問一個迫切問題：AI究竟能提升攻擊精準度、減少傷亡，還是會讓本質上不可靠的黑箱技術，將錯誤與暴行擴大到前所未有的規模？

作者訪談超過200位計畫參與者、知情人士與反對者，以緊湊而深刻的敘事，完整還原AI如何一步步進入現代戰場。這是梅文計畫最具權威性的內幕紀實，也是一部關於戰爭、科技倫理、矽谷權力與人類未來的警世之作。

Longlisted for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award 2026

An FT Best Summer Book of 2026 and an Economist Best Book of 2026 So Far

The dramatic story of the secretive decade-long Pentagon campaign to deliver America into the age of AI warfare

In 2017, a small crew gathered in a windowless Pentagon room to put AI at the heart of how America makes war. Led by Drew Cukor, an unyielding Marine Corps colonel driven by the deaths of US troops and the prospect of war with an AI-equipped China, 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 Maven team wrestled Pentagon bureaucrats and each other. They enlisted an initially reluctant Silicon Valley, supercharged the growth of Palantir, and sent algorithms made by Amazon, Microsoft and others into hot wars. Maven fielded technology to identify targets at speed and scale, developed AI-infused command systems, and learned where AI fails.

The prospect of machines making independent decisions about life and death alarmed members of the US military across all ranks and the project sparked a revolt amongst thousands of tech workers at Google. Yet today, Maven’s AI-enabled systems operate in every branch of the US military and its lessons are folded into developing autonomous technology set to be on the front lines of future war.

Project Maven and its legacy sit at the intersection of colliding trends: America’s insecurity about declining global power, the technological revolution driving AI into every aspect of society, the dominance of Big Tech, all-encompassing surveillance, and the ambitions of China’s growing military. As the second Trump administration pours money into military AI and autonomy while the UN Secretary-General clamours for a ban on killer robots, this book investigates whether AI will improve accuracy and save lives or if a fundamentally unreliable black-box technology will unleash mistakes and atrocities at scale.

Drawing on more than 200 interviews with insiders and opponents, this compelling narrative tells the definitive story of how AI warfare, once the stuff of apocalyptic science fiction, has become a reality.