- Artificial- intelligence-controlled weapons
have been a fixture of science fiction for so long
that they've become a cliché.
- I'll be back.
- But autonomous weapons are far from imaginary.
Systems that can pick and attack targets on their own
are already being deployed in the conflicts of today.
In 2020, small drones that have the ability
to choose their own targets and dive-bomb them
attacked retreating fighters and supply vehicles
of Russian-backed militias fighting the Libyan government.
A 2021 United Nations panel reported autonomous drones,
like Turkey's Kargu-2,
"hunted down and remotely engaged" the rebels.
These loitering munitions
are a growing part of autonomous systems
used in skirmishes around the world.
They can fly high above battlefields,
swooping in and hitting targets they identify on their own
or at the command of a human.
In 2020, Azerbaijan used drones purchased from Israel and Turkey
to devastate Armenia's army, ending a six-week war
and gaining vast amounts of territory.
And drones are just one facet of AI's growing influence
in advanced weaponry.
From sentry turrets designed by a Samsung subsidiary
deployed by South Korea on the demilitarized zone;
to Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system,
that knocks down Hamas' rockets,
decision-making processes have already been handed
to autonomous weapons in a variety of ways.
Both South Korea and Israel say the weapons systems
are controlled by humans,
but they're capable of operating on their own.
Still, experts disagree
on what is the right amount of human involvement.
The Defense Department's 2012 guidelines for autonomous
weapons require these systems
"to allow commanders and operators
to exercise appropriate levels of human judgment".
But, without humans in the loop, skeptics say, autonomous weapons
could make decisions that clash with human ethics
and the laws of war.
- These systems aren't really capable, at this point,
of distinguishing civilian and military targets,
which is a basic requirement of international humanitarian law.
It becomes much too easy to, you know,
create atrocities or war crimes
where nobody could be really held accountable or states
couldn't necessarily be held accountable for the actions
taken by the machines they deploy.
- AI systems might even come into conflict with each other,
escalating a fight to a point of no return
before humans even know what's happening.
- We're really going to be at a disadvantage,
if we think we're going to be in a pure human against machine.
It's be human and machine on one side,
human and machine on the other, but the temporal dimension,
this fleeting superiority that you may be facing,
where decisions will be made that fast,
it might be algorithm against algorithm.
- The use of AI in weapons
has found support in tech luminaries,
like former Google CEO Eric Schmidt
and Amazon CEO Andy Jassy.
- And we strongly believe that our nation needs to be
AI-ready by 2025,
to defend and compete in the coming era
of AI-accelerated competition and conflict.
- In a 756-page report on artificial intelligence
and national security commissioned by Congress,
they argue the US should push back against a ban,
saying it would be difficult to enforce
and could restrict current military capabilities.
Other countries, and even some American allies,
like Austria and Mexico,
are pushing back against the use of AI weapons,
regardless of whether the US, Russia, and China object,
but an outright ban is unlikely for now.
America is the world's most powerful country,
and a nuclear superpower.
It wants to operate unfettered, with a dominant arsenal,
so it continues to maintain it will make its own rules.
That goes for other major military powers,
like China and Russia, too, who are moving swiftly ahead
with their own robotic and AI weapons.
AI technology will only advance from here,
and the pace of development is speeding up.
Whether we like it or not,
it's almost certain to have a greater role
on future battlefields.