Weaponisation

Of Artificial Intelligence

Technological development has become a

rat race. In the competition to lead the
emerging technology race and the futuristic
warfare background, artificial intelligence
(AI) is rapidly becoming the center of
global power play. As seen across many
nations, the development in autonomous
weapon systems is progressing rapidly and
this progress seems to have become a highly
destabilizing development. It not only
threatens the world community as a whole
but also brings complex challenges for
computer scientists and engineers along
with being a security threat to future of
humanity.

It is always a
simple piece
- “AI will probably most likely
of code that lead to the end of the world,
needs to be but in the meantime, there'll be
inserted into great companies.” - Sam
Altman
the bots at
work.
Role of Programmers and Programming
Amidst complex security
challenges and the sea of unknowns
coming our way, what remains
fundamental for the safety and
security of the human race is the
role of programmers and
programming along with the
integrity of semiconductor chips.
The reason behind this is
programmers can define and
determine the nature of AWS (at
least in the beginning) until AI
begins to program itself.

However, if and when a programmer who intentionally

or accidently programs an autonomous weapon to
operate in violation of the current and future
humanitarian laws, how will humans control the
weaponisation of AI? Furthermore, as AWS is software
centered, where should the responsibility for errors and
manipulation of AWS systems design and use lie? This
brings us to the very fundamental question – When and
if an autonomous system kills, who is responsible for
the killing and is such a technology really worth it? Is
that the world we want our children to be part of? So, as
future engineers we need to be cautions while dealing
with ever developing technologies such as Artificial
Intelligence.
 The Bigger Picture - the future of AI in
Warfare and Ethics
The future of AI in military
systems is directly tied to the
ability of engineers to design
autonomous systems that
demonstrate independent capacity
for knowledge- and expert-based
reasoning. There are no such
autonomous systems currently in
operation. Most ground robots are
teleoperated, essentially meaning
that a human is still directly
controlling a robot from some
distance away as though via a
virtual extension cord. Most
military UAVs are only slightly
more sophisticated: they have some
low-level autonomy that allows
them to navigate, and in some cases
land, without human intervention,
but almost all require significant
human intervention to execute
their missions.
Atharva Kulkarni
COMP B 26
AI weapons especially the lethal
autonomous weapon systems
pose a significant challenge to
human ethics. AI weapons do not
have human feelings and there is
a higher chance that their use will
result in violations of IHL rules
on methods and means. For
example, they can hardly identify
the willingness to fight of a
human, or understand the
historical, cultural, religious and
humanistic values of a specific
object. Consequently, they are
not expected to respect principles
of military necessity and
proportionality.
It is almost impossible for them
to really understand the meaning
of the right to life. This is because
machines can be well repaired
and programmed repeatedly, but
life is given to humans only once.
From this perspective, even
though it is still possible when
employing of non-lethal AI
weapons, highly lethal AI
weapons must be totally
prohibited on both international
and national levels in view of
their high-level autonomy.