NYT on Autonomous Weapons and Ways to Regulate Them
The New York Times has a useful article today on autonomous weapon systems and debate about their regulation. The issue is also on the discussion agenda this week in Geneva for the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapon. The Times article says:
Warfare is increasingly guided by software. Today, armed drones can be operated by remote pilots peering into video screens thousands of miles from the battlefield.
Published by The Lawfare Institute
in Cooperation With
The New York Times has a useful article today on autonomous weapon systems and debate about their regulation. The issue is also on the discussion agenda this week in Geneva for the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapon. The Times article says:
Warfare is increasingly guided by software. Today, armed drones can be operated by remote pilots peering into video screens thousands of miles from the battlefield. But now, some scientists say, arms makers have crossed into troubling territory: They are developing weapons that rely on artificial intelligence, not human instruction, to decide what to target and whom to kill. As these weapons become smarter and nimbler, critics fear they will become increasingly difficult for humans to control — or to defend against. And while pinpoint accuracy could save civilian lives, critics fear weapons without human oversight could make war more likely, as easy as flipping a switch.In a recent article co-authored with Daniel Reisner, we argue that with proper international and national-level processes, emergent autonomous weapon systems can be effectively regulated within the existing law of armed conflict framework (Anderson, Reisner & Waxman: Adapting the Law of Armed Conflict to Autonomous Weapon Systems). The Times article lays out some of the dangers attendant to these systems as well as their potential benefits, including with respect to preventing civilian collateral damage, which we think are best balanced through application and refinement of traditional law of armed conflict principles and standards. The Times article also discusses the difficulties of line-drawing in any effort to prohibit autonomous systems, which we think cut strongly against ideas promoted by many NGOs for an international treaty ban, and in favor of an incremental approach that adapts as technology evolves.
Kenneth Anderson is a professor at Washington College of Law, American University; a visiting fellow of the Hoover Institution; and a non-resident senior fellow of the Brookings Institution. He writes on international law, the laws of war, weapons and technology, and national security; his most recent book, with Benjamin Wittes, is "Speaking the Law: The Obama Administration's Addresses on National Security Law."
Matthew Waxman is a law professor at Columbia Law School, where he chairs the National Security Law Program. He also previously co-chaired the Cybersecurity Center at Columbia University's Data Science Institute, and he is Adjunct Senior Fellow for Law and Foreign Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations. He previously served in senior policy positions at the State Department, Defense Department, and National Security Council. After graduating from Yale Law School, he clerked for Judge Joel M. Flaum of the U.S. Court of Appeals and Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter.
