New Intelligence Era Demands All-Domain Security Systems

Human society and the natural world have long been maintained and evolved by naturally occurring biological intelligence and natural intelligence. This phenomenon occurred spontaneously as intelligent agents in nature—such as human and ant colonies—autonomously responded and adapted to their environments to sustain themselves and their groups.

However, the development of artificial intelligence (AI) is bringing this traditional era of natural intelligence to an end. The recent emergence of new foundation models—including ChatGPT (language and voice), DALL-E (visual), EVO-2 (DNA), and RynnBrain (robotics)—is leading to dramatic enhancement of human perception, cognition, and motor capabilities, easier creation of new organisms, and the emergence of high-performance humanoids. As a result, it has become possible to identify or newly generate physical, biological, social, and various intelligence patterns that existing biological intelligence, including humans, could not achieve, bringing fundamental changes to human society and the natural world.

Beyond AI, advances in other Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies are also demanding changes to the natural intelligence-centered era. These technological factors include big data capable of processing large volumes of structured and unstructured data; computing systems (cloud, edge, federated, quantum) capable of calculations in complex situations and conditions; autonomous robots and devices (physical AI); and various communication networks connecting micro and macro worlds (IoT, 6G, brain networks, molecular communication). They also include digital biology and synthetic biology that facilitate the creation or control of organisms; brain engineering (brain-computer interfaces) that connects and controls humans, organisms, and machines; micro-world utilization and management technologies (MEMS, nanotechnology, picotechnology); digital virtual spaces (metaverse) that will change human lifestyles and cognition; exploration capabilities for previously inaccessible macro spaces (space, deep sea); smart materials mimicking biological intelligence; and advanced modeling and simulation techniques for complex systems.

These technological factors, through individual or convergent processes, are giving rise to numerous intelligent entities with new structures and functions that did not exist in the natural intelligence era. These new intelligent entities include intelligence-augmented humans and organisms (animals, plants); software-based intelligent entities (information-gathering and analysis web bots like crawl4AI, intelligent cyber bombs, aircraft); micro-world entities such as micro-robots, nanobots, and DNA bots; and macro-world entities such as intelligent robots, autonomous vehicles, and synthetic biology-based new organisms.

Furthermore, hybrid intelligent entities integrated through brain-computer interfaces (BCI) are emerging, leading to human-machine (computer), machine-organism, human-organism, and human-machine-organism integrated intelligent entities. Additionally, swarm intelligent entities where unmanned aerial vehicles and unmanned vessels form collectives to perform specific missions; massive complex intelligent entities where multiple different intelligent entities integrate to perform large-scale missions (multi-AI agent systems, fully automated smart factories, intelligent tactical unmanned systems); and biological swarm intelligent entities connected through brain networks are all emerging.

Ultimately, these intelligent entities will perform various missions and functions in the micro and macro worlds of reality, as well as in cyber and metaverse spaces, that traditional organisms cannot. For example, nanobio robots can realize precision medicine in micro spaces or covertly damage organisms. Foreign policy smart web bots can convert large volumes of unstructured data into information and knowledge in real time, then propose specific policies through inference engines. Tactical collaborative systems composed of various unmanned aerial vehicles and unmanned vessels can sense and analyze battlefield environments on behalf of humans and autonomously execute optimized operational actions.

This new intelligence era requires the development of artificial general intelligence (AGI) and more advanced intelligent entities, while simultaneously presenting new challenges due to the diversity of intelligent entities, complexity of their actions, and changing characteristics of governance and security spaces.

First, various types of new intelligent entities will perform ultra-quick-response, ultra-fine-granularity, and cross-scale functions and missions in intelligent, automated, and unmanned forms across individual or cross-domain areas of real and virtual spaces. Accordingly, all-domain sensing and response systems will need to be established to ensure these missions are performed normally or to block abnormal or hostile actions.

Second, the new intelligence era will expand and subdivide national governance, security, and defense spaces further, creating new challenges. Future governance, security, and defense spaces will expand bidirectionally beyond existing micro and macro world boundaries, requiring responses to nano(bio) and pico worlds microscopically, and to deep sea, near space, and deep space macroscopically. Additionally, safety requirements for non-material domains including existing cyberspace as well as cognitive, intelligence, information, and metaverse spaces will increase significantly.

Third, future advances in 6G communication, molecular communication, brain network, and quantum communication technologies will further deepen the connection and integration of cyber, physical, and social domains, as well as micro and macro worlds. Consequently, national governance, security, and defense affairs will require the establishment of all-domain governance, security, and defense systems capable of detecting and responding to problems from an integrated perspective, beyond responses at individual domain and space levels. Whether solutions to these challenges can be presented will determine the survival of nations and societies in the new intelligence era from a coevolutionary perspective.