In 2020, the countries of Armenia and Azerbaijan went to war – and Azerbaijan mopped the floor with Armenia in a little over a month.
What made the war so fascinating (and actually less tragic than it would have otherwise been) was the fact that it was the first “drone war,” and it was something nobody saw coming.
Azerbaijan tactically used a large number of drones to quickly bring Armenia to its knees, avoiding a much longer and bloodier war.
Geopolitical analyst, Peter Zeihan, discusses this in one of his most interesting videos: Electronic Warfare Innovations and Exports (less than 5 minutes).
Zeihan describes the rapid advances in drones and drone detection systems – and how actual action on the ground (as opposed to test labs) is forcing innovation at a pace we’ve never before seen.
Ukraine is actually far more advanced than the U.S. in drone warfare because of its experience in the trenches, per Zeihan.
These relatively inexpensive innovations are rendering trillions of dollars of traditional military hardware (and entire militaries) obsolete – as Mr. Putin has now discovered.
Nikola Tesla Predicted Drone Warfare in 1898!
Scientists and authors have been predicting all-drone warfare now for over a century.
Nikola Tesla predicted it (“unmanned aerial torpedoes”) as far back as 1898! HG Wells did in 1932, British General Bernard Montgomery did in 1952, and numerous authors wrote novels about drone warfare in the 1980s and 1990s.
About 25 years ago, in fact, my son insisted that I read Ender’s Game – a relatively famous novel about kids controlling fleets of drones in what they thought was simulated warfare (that turned out to be real).
I bring all this up because we have been seeing predictions of technology and AI in particular, taking over and/or wiping out industries for years now.
And to be sure, we have seen many wipeouts. Netflix crushed Blockbuster, Apple crushed Blackberry, digital photography crushed Kodak, online sales crushed Borders (bookstore), etc.
These wipeouts though took years or even decades to play out – which is why many firms remain complacent.
Future wipeouts, however, will come much faster, as technology is now more powerful and developing faster than ever.
AI Is Not Overhyped; We Employ It Daily
I see our young tech-savvy team at JVM employ AI daily now in ways that simply amaze me. For example, they use AI to read purchase contracts and prelims and automatically input data – saving us hundreds of man-hours and ensuring more accuracy.
They also use AI to scan for loan guidelines, to suggest alternative lending solutions, and to do income calculations. And – our marketing team is even more advanced, employing solutions that are so advanced I was asked not to share them publicly. 😊
These many innovations reduce costs and allow us to offer lower rates and better service than our competitors – and this will continue to accelerate.
While JVM is far ahead of the game because of our tech-savvy team, we are not unique. Many other lenders are employing AI in the trenches just as aggressively as we are.
But what amazes me though is the number of lenders I know of who are not even experimenting.
They are either waiting to see how the new tech battlefield plays out or they are convinced their current structures and systems remain strong enough to fight off the coming competition.
All those companies might learn a lesson from Armenia.
