Don’t make Marshal Foch’s mistake on AI
The Guardian
ENRICHED
Details
- Date Published
- 13 Apr 2026
- Priority Score
- 3
- Australian
- No
- Created
- 13 Apr 2026, 10:00 pm
Description
Letter: Peregrine Rand reflects on Marc Bloch’s Strange Defeat and the future threat of artificial intelligence
Summary
This correspondence draws a historical parallel between the French military's failure to anticipate mechanized warfare in 1940 and current institutional complacency regarding AI development. The author argues that contemporary leaders are repeating the 'failure of imagination' that led to the collapse of the French army, dismissing transformative technology as a mere novelty. By framing unchecked AI advancement as a potential 'blitzkrieg' event, the letter warns that humanity may find itself technologically outmatched by systems that evolve far beyond their currently 'amusing' capabilities. This perspective emphasizes the existential risks posed by rapid, unforeseen advancements in frontier AI that could render traditional safety frameworks and governance structures obsolete.
Body
‘Technology that is currently amusingly alarming will develop in less amusing ways.’ Photograph: Omar Marques/Sopa Images/ShutterstockView image in fullscreen‘Technology that is currently amusingly alarming will develop in less amusing ways.’ Photograph: Omar Marques/Sopa Images/ShutterstockLettersDon’t make Marshal Foch’s mistake on AIPeregrine Rand reflects on Marc Bloch’s Strange Defeat and the future threat of artificial intelligenceEmma Brockes’ article struck a chord (It’s finally happened: I’m now worried about AI. And consulting ChatGPT did nothing to allay my fears, 8 April). I am reading Marc Bloch’s Strange Defeat, in which the eminent French historian and soon-to-be-executed resistance worker gives a first-hand account of the collapse of the French army in 1940. He attributes the debacle at least in part to a failure of imagination on the part of the French general staff, who were incapable of grasping that technology, and war, had fundamentally changed since 1918.Brockes’ article suggests that we, and our leaders, are suffering from the same inability to understand that a technology which is currently amusingly alarming will develop in less amusing ways – the future Marshal Ferdinand Foch had, according to Bloch, earlier dismissed aircraft as being a toy for hobbyists and not of any military interest.Bloch writes that blitzkrieg in 1940 was like a replay of the earlier French colonial wars, only this time it was the French who were using the bows and arrows. It is far from amusing to wonder what an unchecked AI will make of our sticks and stones in 10 or 20 years’ time.Peregrine RandParis, FranceExplore more on these topicsAI (artificial intelligence)ComputingSecond world warFirst world warChatGPTlettersShareReuse this content