The artificial intelligence revolution of warfare is well underway and the Pentagon is scrambling to get its troops to the front. 

The military failed to fully communicate its AI problems and desired solutions as the hot new technology promises to rewrite the rules for preparing armies and fighting wars, says Pentagon Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer Craig Martell. Mr. Martell has assembled top AI minds from around the world for a brainstorming conference in Washington this week, frankly telling the tech experts, “We really need your help.”

The European Union is getting serious about countering attacks by Iran-backed Houthi militants on commercial ships in the Red Sea. Pentagon Correspondent Mike Glenn reports on the EU launch of “Operation Aspides,” under which Greek, French, German and Italian vessels will escort merchant vessels through the strategic waterway.

The Pentagon welcomed the operation, which the EU says will coordinate with “Operation Prosperity Guardian,” the U.S.-led multinational coalition formed in December to respond to Houthi attacks on merchant ships. The bad news is that, despite a month of U.S.-led airstrikes, the Yemen-based Houthis remain capable of launching significant, disruptive attacks. This week alone, they seriously damaged a Belize-flagged bulk carrier and downed an American drone worth tens of millions of dollars.

It’s worth noting that Washington has spent more than $100 million battling Iran-allied forces over the past few months, with a total price tag soon to clear $1 billion. National Security Correspondent Ben Wolfgang’s recently reported on U.S. forces who raided a ship originating in Iran that was loaded with weapons for the Houthis, including guided missile launcher assemblies. 

China’s communist government has sharply increased censorship and information controls under President Xi Jinping, according to a new report by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission that also highlights Beijing’s export of censorship tools to other authoritarian states in a push for greater state control over the internet.

National Security Correspondent Bill Gertz digs into the report that calls for more U.S. focus to block Chinese attempts to sow divisions within the United States and preserve freedom of information around the world.

For its part, Beijing is demanding the U.S. stop “harassing” Chinese students at U.S. airports and called on the Biden administration to end visa sanctions that punish China for refusing to cooperate in taking back deportees. China made the demands to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in a recent meeting in Washington that was supposed to focus on cooperation in cutting the flow of fentanyl chemicals from China through Mexico and into the United States.

Former Thailand Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is free on parole after six months in a police hospital, casting new uncertainty over the future of the strategically located Southeast Asian nation’s already fluid political landscape.

We’ll be tracking what the development means for the U.S.-China battle for influence in Thailand. Times Special Correspondent Richard S. Ehrlich reports from Bangkok that the country has been actively wooing Beijing to help build a highway and railway land bridge linking the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand as a shortcut for oil and other international cargo.

Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, a member of Mr. Thaksin’s Pheu Thai party, currently holds power via a civilian-military coalition government that appears to please Thailand’s U.S.-trained military, which is keen to protect its lucrative commercial enterprises, including racecourses, boxing stadiums, golf courses, shops, media outlets, an electric power station and hotels in barracks. 

In other parts of Asia, the U.S. military has been known to rely on such properties to gain an edge — witness the 2017 deployment of a THAAD missile defense system on a former South Korean golf course — against China and Beijing’s only military treaty ally, North Korea.

The past three Democratic administrations in Washington failed to contain Russian President Vladimir Putin, writes Rowan Scarborough, who sticks to the basic facts in commentary that notes how “under Obama-Biden-Clinton, Mr. Putin would then execute his first invasion of Ukraine in 2014.” Mr. Scarborough adds that “after the Obama-Biden-Clinton reign, Donald Trump became president. Putin invasions: zero. Then, Mr. Biden and his Obama administration alumni returned to power and Mr. Putin invaded Ukraine again and is still there.”

Regular columnist Clifford May, meanwhile, takes aim at Tucker Carlson, writing that while the former Fox News host “was marveling over the opulence of Moscow‘s subways, Alexei Navalny died in the Polar Wolf prison camp.” Mr. May asserts that Mr. Navalny — the “only serious opponent” of Mr. Putin — would have wanted it known that “the average monthly wage for a Russian is less than $800,” less than a sixth of the average American’s monthly wage, while Russians spend half of what they earn on food, compared to under 12% spent for the average American.