THIRD REVOLUTION IN WARFARE: TACKLING THE USE OF LETHAL AUTONOMOUS WEAPONS SYSTEMS(LAWS) IN MILITARY OPERATIONS
Dubbed the “third revolution in warfare, after gunpowder and nuclear arms,” lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS) use artificial intelligence and deep machine learning to locate, identify, and engage targets with minimal or no human oversight. While proponents praise the reduction in human cost and logistical military advantages of LAWS, opponents cite moral concerns and the risk of uncontrolled escalation as reasons to preemptively ban their development. The stakes are high in both camps of argument; the integration of autonomous weapons into armies can slash military costs by almost one fourth and significantly decrease the number of human casualties. However, it is also not difficult to imagine the dystopian worst case scenario: technology whose intelligence and capabilities grow more quickly than any international arms race.