Dana Taylor

I'll be back tomorrow morning with another episode of USA Today's The Excerpt.

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One of the earliest headlines in the U.S.-led war in Iran involved the bombing of a girls' primary school in Minab.

Between 175 and 180 people were killed in the attack, most of them young girls.

Meanwhile, adjacent to the school was a military compound of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

Was AI to blame?

Hello and welcome to USA Today's The Excerpt.

I'm Dana Taylor.

Today is Monday, March 30th, 2026.

The U.S.-led war in Iran is the first global conflict where AI is playing a major role both on the literal battlefield and on social media where the battle for hearts and minds is playing out.

Are we entering a dangerous new evolution of warfare with AI?

We're going to dig into all of it with two experts today.

Joining me to discuss the nascent use of AI on the battlefields of Operation Epic Fury is Alok Mehta, Director of the Wadwani AI Center for CSIS, the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Thanks so much for joining me on the excerpt, Alok.

Start us out, if you would, with a 30,000-foot view of how AI is being deployed in the US-led war in Iran.