Embracing artificial intelligence by placing limitations on autonomous weapons

Abstract

Among the first countries to adopt a formal policy on AWS was the USA. Despite the updated Autonomous Weapons Policy, the said policy remains misunderstood. Lethal autonomous weapons (LAWs) are an emerging field and establishing a common NATO standard will help reduce the gap in capabilities among NATO members. On the one hand, Autonomous Weapon Systems (AWS) do not engage in disputes and conflict, therefore reducing collateral damage. On the other hand, AWS lacks value judgment and thus leads to a violation of rights, increasing incidental casualties. The implementation of these standards can help nations ensure that capable autonomous weapons systems will be produced that can be deployed within ethical parameters. However, a deeper investigation should be conducted on the use of autonomous weapons systems until international humanitarian law (IHL) is properly adopted to address the concerns raised by such systems, and until such time that viable solutions are found, this author recommends placing limitations on AWS. Based on the lethal consequences of activated AWS, International limits should be formulated, established, and adopted to limit AWS. Therefore, I recommend the establishment of international limits and legally binding rules on AWS to warrant civilian protection, compliance with IHL and ethical acceptability. The research would firstly focus on what would be classified as AWS. How autonomous weapons affect our rights and how to ensure the protection of such rights would be the second focus of the introduction. The types of Autonomous Weapons, including AWS, would be discussed in the second chapter of my mini-dissertation. The main inquiry as set out under the third chapter is thus concerned with the necessity for AWS to comply with the general principles of the law of armed conflict, whilst the existence of a governing treaty remains outstanding will be discussed. The inquiry is thus two-fold, focusing first on the Conflicting legal, moral, and ethical challenges, including concerns raised, which would follow as outlined under chapter 4, and secondly, Chapter five will caucus how to breach the concerns of soulless robots and the inevitable capabilities of AWS. Lastly, concluding remarks under chapter 6.