Genius Weapons by Louis A. Del Monte

Author:Louis A. Del Monte
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781633884533
Publisher: Prometheus Books

Autonomous and semiautonomous weapon systems shall be designed to allow commanders and operators to exercise appropriate levels of human judgment over the use of force.16

These statements and the Department of Defense's Directive 3000.09 seem contradictory. How do we make sense of this apparent paradox? From the standpoint of policy, it is difficult to reconcile. However, the United States recognizes that the policy constraint imposed by Department of Defense's Directive 3000.09 is not placing them at a technological disadvantage. From the standpoint of technology, the United States can easily modify a semiautonomous weapon system to become autonomous.

The policies adopted by the key players also make it difficult to ban autonomous weapons. As previously stated, the United States essentially bans the use of autonomous weapons in accordance with Department of Defense's Directive 3000.09. China states that it sees value in a new international forum on lethal autonomous robotics,17 but Russia wants no part of it.18 For example, the United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (UN CCW) Group of Governmental Experts, including representatives from China, Russia, and the United States, met in Geneva on April 9–13, 2018, to discuss the future of lethal autonomous weapon systems, but did not reach an agreement.19 One key obstacle is that Russia has a much smaller population than China and the United States. Therefore, Russia sees autonomous weapons as essential to maintaining military parity.

The United States is also likely to show little interest in a formal ban because even if Russia agreed to ban autonomous weapons, their adherence to the resolution would be questionable given their smaller population. Additionally, the United States would want to maintain the flexibility to technically make their semiautonomous weapons autonomous if this becomes necessary in order to maintain military superiority in the future.

I believe that China's apparent openness to discuss a ban is a diplomatic ploy. They are aggressively pursuing AI technology for both their commercial and military applications.

In simple terms, no rational argument is going to move the major players. Russia is openly against it. China is being relatively quiet, while aggressively pursuing AI technology for weapons and commercial purposes. The United States wants to argue that they are already abiding by an autonomous weapons ban, but they would be hesitant to formalize that in a United Nations resolution. Interestingly, the Heritage Foundation argues that the United States should openly oppose the United Nation's attempt to ban autonomous weapons. They argue that

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