That will probably make war more capital-intensive, as human labor is increasingly removed from the equation (and because AI is very capital-intensive)

But from any one country’s point of view, those social changes were absolutely necessary, since the only thing worse than winning a war is losing a war.

Genghis Khan had to convince a plethora of fractious steppe warlords to all stick together and cooperate.

Instead, what changed were the societies that made use of the weapons.

There were plenty of steppe empires before the Mongols, but they usually weren’t able to overcome densely populated, settled civilizations like China. Only once Genghis Khan implemented reforms like meritocracy, writing, and so on were the steppe warlords able to break through... See more

Fog, wind, and rain significantly degrade drone operations

Skilled human operators are a valuable resource that limits the amount of drones that can be used at once.