Lethal AI weapons are here: how can we control them?

Autonomous weapons guided by artificial intelligence are already in use. Researchers, legal experts and ethicists are struggling with what should be allowed on the battlefield.

For such weapons, no person needs to hold the trigger or make the final decision to detonate.

The development of lethal autonomous weapons (LAWs), including AI-equipped drones, is on the rise. The US Department of Defense, for example, has earmarked US$1 billion so far for its Replicator programme, which aims to build a fleet of small, weaponized autonomous vehicles. Experimental submarines, tanks and ships have been made that use AI to pilot themselves and shoot. Commercially available drones can use AI image recognition to zero in on targets and blow them up.

Efforts to control and regulate the use of weapons date back hundreds of years. Medieval knights, for example, agreed not to target each other’s horses with their lances. In 1675, the warring states of France and the Holy Roman Empire agreed to ban the use of poison bullets.

Today, the main international restrictions on weaponry are through the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), a 1983 treaty that has been used, for example, to ban blinding laser weapons.