AUTONOMOUS
WEAPONS (LAWS)
Ritesh Hattarki, Roland Sellman, Tunger Hong, Siddhartha Vaka
INTRODUCTION
(RITESH)
• Lethal autonomous weapon systems (LAWS) are a
special class of weapon systems that use sensor
suites and computer algorithms to independently
identify a target and employ an onboard weapon
system to engage and destroy the target without
manual human control of the system.
• LAWS must be able to fulfill:
• Finding differences between legitimate targets
and non-military targets such as civilians and
hors de combat
• Proportionality between targets that are or
aren’t military objectives or are subject to
protection
• Predictability and reliability. In other words,
making sure that the weapon will perform as
expected
SIDE 1(FOR)
(ROLAND)
• AI-enabled weapon system
autonomy has the great potential to
mitigate the risk of human error as
an additional oversight tool to assist
targeting operations.
• Further, their close combat
capabilities reduce the need to use
high explosives as the means of
delivering lethal effects. Compared to
conventional munitions, autonomous
systems will enable more accurate
and surgical attacks with significantly
reduced concern about collateral
damage.
• Prevents casualties by removing people from
dangerous areas
• Examples include CIWS, APS, Iron Dome
SIDE 2 (AGAINST)
(TUNGER)
• Difficulty of identifying legal responsibility
• For example, who is responsible if a LAW
engages and takes action on the wrong
target? Would it be the programmer,
commander, or the soldier who set the LAW
up?
• Raises in concerns about predictability and
reliability
• Can create accidents in targeting
• (IE CIWS A6 shoot down)
• Autonomous systems are incapable of making
complex ethical choices in the battlefield.
• Weapon payloads carried on autonomous
systems that enable them to cause lethal
effects.
PERSONAL OPINIONS(EVERYBODY)
• Ritesh Hattarki: I support to have autonomous weapons being used
throughout wars and other legal actions. They help out humans by
performing tasks that are often too dangerous for humans. They also have
lower risk of error can prevent casualties
• Tunger Hong:
• Siddhartha Vaka:
• Roland Sellman:
QUESTIONS???
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER (CLASS DISCUSSION)
• Could fully autonomous weapons comply with the requirements of
international humanitarian law to protect civilians in armed conflict?
• Why are fully autonomous weapons a pressing issue?
• If fully autonomous weapons comply with the requirements of international
humanitarian law, why should they be prohibited?
SOURCES
• https://sgp.fas.org/crs/natsec/IF11150.pdf
• .
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwj797qsl6H6AhW
djIkEHR_VAokQFnoECBgQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.icrc.org%2Fen%2Fdownload%2Ffile%2F
65762%2Fautonomous_weapon_systems_under_international_humanitarian_law.pdf&usg=AOvVaw3
Yo2nsxEEsyDwKBvi9K07G&safe=active&surl=1
• .https://www.cfr.org/blog/stop-stop-killer-robot-debate-why-we-need-artificial-intelligence-futurebattlefields
• . https://www.hrw.org/news/2013/10/21/qa-fully-autonomous-weapons
•