Artificial intelligence could rank as the most consequential catalyst for warfare

Artificial intelligence could rank as the most consequential catalyst for warfare since the invention of human language, according to a recent analysis by anthropologist Jean-Claude Favin-Lévêque.

Published in his book Et l’Homme créa la guerre by Editions Hermann, the research examines collective violence across millions of years, L’Express.fr reported.

“Trois choses se sont additionnées, empilées les unes sur les autres pendant un temps immense,” Favin-Lévêque told L’Express.fr when describing how human conflict developed.

Favin-Lévêque rejects both the Rousseauian concept of the peaceful noble savage and Thomas Hobbes’s view of humanity as inherently bellocquex. The researcher, an associate at the Muséum d’histoire naturelle and a former French Air and Space Force officer, traces human violence back to the last common ancestor shared with chimpanzees and bonobos seven million years ago.

The study challenges the widely held theory that warfare began alongside the Neolithic agricultural revolution. Instead, the author argues that collective violence formed as a gradual construction embedded deep within the human lineage long before farming societies emerged.

“Ensuite, l’outil. Je ne tranche pas ici de ce qui est venu en premier, de l’outil ou de l’arme, mais en inventant l’outil, l’homme invente ce qui rend le meurtre facile,” Favin-Lévêque told L’Express.fr.

The anthropologist points to three distinct components that stacked together over time to create human warfare. First is social evolution, marked by the early emergence of stable nuclear families and kinship structures.

Second is the invention of tools and weapons, which transformed natural combat patterns. Third is language, which allowed groups to coordinate tactics and organize conflicts with greater efficiency.

“Enfin, le langage, une invention extraordinaire qui démultiplie tout ce que fait l’homme,” Favin-Lévêque told L’Express.fr. “Cela permet d’organiser le conflit et d’en améliorer l’efficacité grâce à la tactique.”

Specialists continue to debate the exact chronological threshold where physical altercations graduate into formal war. Favin-Lévêque utilizes a deliberately broad framework to encompass these early developments.

“La définition fait débat, mais je préfère une définition volontairement large : deux groupes de la même espèce qui s’affrontent,” Favin-Lévêque told L’Express.fr.

The publication of Et l’Homme créa la guerre by Editions Hermann remains available through booksellers.