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Ethical problems posed by the use of autonomous weapon systems in war

Singapore Armed Forces2021
Magazines
The author has structured the essay in five parts. He first defines what Autonomous Weapon Systems (AWS) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are. He describes the rules that AWS are expected to operate under when dealing with combatants and non-combatants. He then explains why accounting for the actions of a fully AWS, especially when itkills a friendly or non-combatant, is problematic, whereas it is not so with a semi-AWS. He proceeds to discuss that militaries have a legal and moral responsibility to, where possible, protect not only non-combatants, but also itsown soldiers from unnecessary harm. He feels that it will be ethical to employ semi-AWS when AI becomes moremature. Fourthly, he goes on to highlight that fully AWS do not have the moral authority to take lives, especially those of friendlies and non-combatants. In fact, the moral authority should lie with a human being when employinga semi-AWS in war, or a fully-AWS in a combatant-only battlefield. The author then concludes that employing a human-approved, fully AWS in a combatant only battlefield would not be unethical.
Imprint:
Singapore, 2021
Collation:
7p.
Frequency:
Monthly, Aug 2021
Language:
English
BRN:
130517
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