How Project Maven taught the military to love AI

The Verge / 4/25/2026

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Key Points

  • The article describes how U.S. military targeting during the early phase of the Iran assault accelerated with the help of AI systems, citing the Maven Smart System as a key tool for speeding up targeting.
  • It highlights the origin of Project Maven in 2017 as an effort to apply computer vision to drone video, framing it as a practical experiment that evolved into a broader AI-warfare capability.
  • The development of Maven triggered internal and contractor-related controversy, including employee protests at Google, the military’s initial contractor.
  • A new book by journalist Katrina Manson investigates Maven’s path from its early concept to its role in what is characterized as the dawn of AI warfare.
  • Overall, the piece argues that Project Maven helped shift the military’s culture and workflow toward embracing AI for operational tasks like target identification.

In the first 24 hours of the assault on Iran, the US military struck more than 1,000 targets, nearly double the scale of the "shock and awe" attack on Iraq over two decades ago. This acceleration was made possible by AI systems that speed up the targeting process. Chief among them is the Maven Smart System.

In her new book, Project Maven: A Marine Colonel, His Team, and the Dawn of AI Warfare, journalist Katrina Manson investigates the development of Maven from its inception in 2017 as an experiment in applying computer vision to drone footage. The project spurred employee protests at Google, the military's initial contractor, prompting the …

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