Weapons and warfare are becoming
increasingly sophisticated with the latest
battlefield technology is starting to
look more like a computer game with
wirelessly connected soldiers
communicating via sound and vision to
drones carrying satellite-linked Wi-Fi
hotspots and given orders by commanders
that could be on the other side of the
world but the weapons of the future won't
need soldiers or commanders to operate
because they will be able to make the
decision of what or whom to target
themselves using artificial intelligence.
The Pentagon is spending $ billions on
developing a new generation of lethal
autonomous weapons or LAWS like robotic
fighter jets, missiles that decide what
to attack ships but hunt enemy
submarines. For now remote weapons like
UAVs or unmanned aerial vehicles are
directed by humans from the safety of
cubicles often hundreds or thousands of
miles away from a conflict zone and as
such
any decision to use lethal force is
always made by a person. But before we
start thinking Skynet is going to take
over and we'll have terminators roaming
around we are still a long way from the
Hollywood version of A.I. Although we have
seen the latest generation of robots
like the Boston Dynamics Atlas and it's
uncanny ability to walk and move like a
human
we won't be seeing an army of robotic
soldiers anytime soon.
Whilst we think of A.I. being used with
the latest hardware. the United States
Air Force is working on using older
aircraft refitted with autonomous
controls. The project which is called
"Loyal Wingman" sees retired f-16 reused
and fitted with enough autonomy so that
they could fly alongside the latest f-35's
and take cues from a human pilot in
another aircraft just as if a real
wingman were there
and probably before driverless cars will
make it onto the public roads. Autonomous
missiles are an area which are already
in use with systems like the British
fire forget Brimstone missiles. Once it
has been primed with target information
it can work on its own to select the
best target and cooperate for up to 24
other missiles to coordinate a staggered
attack against swarms of enemy vehicles
or boats and it can't find a target it
will self-destruct. Drones are another
big area for military A.I. The Israel
Aerospace Industries HAROP is a small
anti-radiation drone which is also
called the "suicide drone" it can stay
airborne above a battle area for upto six
hours looking for specific radio
transmission like a radar source or
enemy air defense system but in theory
could look for things like a specific
signal from a mobile phone. The HAROP
will been home in on the signal and
deliberately crash into and destroy
its target of its onboard warhead.
Meanwhile DARPA, the military research
arm of the Pentagon has also unveiled
the "Sea Hunter" an autonomous surface
vessel that is designed to stay at sea
for months and track even quietly
submarines anywhere in the world because
it's designed not to have any human crew
during its operation. It must navigate
busy shipping lanes and interact with an
intelligent human adversary all by
itself then communicate the data back to
its control center or take the
appropriate action if it were to be
armed. Though these systems can work in
an autonomous mode the new generation of
A.I. weapons will take this to the next
stage instead of being shown a target or
partially remote-controlled these new
weapons will go and look for targets and
decide whether or not to destroy them
without any human intervention recently
DARPA showed a system using a drone that
could be bought from amazon when loaded
with new A.I.
software it becomes a robot that can
then hunt and identify armed men with AK-47's
in a mock-up of a
middle-eastern village at a military
testing range in the U.S. It was even
capable of finding armed men when they
were hidden in the shadows
if this system were to be armed like the
HAROP or be able to guide a missile to
the target it could become a formidable
hunting system. This sort of thing was
once preserve of Hollywood but it will
be controlling the future autonomous
weapons within years rather than decades
these new weapons would offer unmatched
speed and precision over any human
control system and is now being called
the biggest step change since the
creation of gunpowder and nuclear
weapons.
Although this technology will give the
edge to the US and their allies that may
be short-lived as others are investing
heavily in this area and unlike the
development of the atomic bomb that
required technologies that were very
difficult to create, this is mostly
software-driven which means it can be a
lot easier to develop given the
programming resources.
Once this has been done they could be
cheaply mass produced by any significant
military power which also means they
could easily find their way into the
hands of rogue states or extremists.
Aerial vehicles like drones. UAVs and
missiles will be the first to use this
but there are already calls for such
weapons to be banned because of the
problems over there
ethical and legal position. If an
autonomous weapon committed a war crime
who would be responsible if no human
made the decision.
Some say that lethal autonomous weapons
will decrease casualties because they
can be programmed to follow rules of
engagement rigorously and analyze the
situation logically. They don't have
emotions they don't get tired, stressed
or distracted like a human competent
could and therefore they are less likely
to make mistakes and kill civilians.
Whatever your views you may have on it
there is an inexorable drive
for AI in the military and the rise
of the robots has already started.
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