Should We Turn the Robots Loose?

Abstract

The use of robots by the U.S. military has grown exponentially in the last 10 years. While remotely piloted drones and ground vehicles are in the spotlight today, the Department of Defense (DoD) has stated a goal of increasing the level of automation in unmanned systems.1 Based on pre-existing autonomous systems, the DoD goal, and ongoing technological advances in artificial intelligence it seems likely that automated lethal robots will soon be available to operational commanders for use in combat. While autonomous lethal robots promise significant rewards, they also bring with them significant risks to the success of military operations. Military planners should choose to use autonomous lethal systems when the importance of casualty reduction outweighs the importance of avoiding strategic communications setbacks due to collateral damage.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 02, 2010
Accession Number
ADA525286

Entities

People

  • Jesse Hilliker

Organizations

  • Naval War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Autonomy

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aircrafts
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Autonomous Systems
  • Autonomous Weapons
  • Collateral Damage
  • Control Systems
  • Department Of Defense
  • Ground Vehicles
  • Military Operations
  • Remotely Piloted Vehicles
  • Strategic Communications
  • Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
  • Unmanned Ground Vehicles
  • Unmanned Systems
  • Unmanned Vehicles
  • Weapons
  • Weapons Effects

Readers

  • Computer Vision.
  • Military History / Militaries and War Studies
  • Strategic Security Studies

Technology Areas

  • AI & ML
  • AI & ML - Autonomous Systems
  • AI & ML - DoD AI Strategy
  • Autonomy
  • Autonomy - UAVs