{"id":22193,"date":"2022-11-04T06:50:45","date_gmt":"2022-11-04T07:50:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/?p=22193"},"modified":"2022-11-04T07:56:32","modified_gmt":"2022-11-04T07:56:32","slug":"report-lethal-autonomous-weapons-could-intensify-wars-us-backs-limits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/2022\/11\/04\/report-lethal-autonomous-weapons-could-intensify-wars-us-backs-limits\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Lethal Autonomous Weapons Could Intensify Wars; US Backs Limits"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The emergence of lethal autonomous weapons could intensify military competition, according to a report published Oct. 31 by the Stimson Center. It follows a meeting of the United Nations First Committee in which the U.S. became one of 70 countries to favor limiting the weapons.<\/p>\n

The authors of the policy brief \u201cBolstering Arms Control in a Contested Geopolitical Environment,\u201d<\/a> Michael Moodie and Jerry Zhang, advocate for reinforcing the world\u2019s fracturing arms control framework.<\/p>\n

Disruptive new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), \u201cheightened competition\u201d among world powers, and a \u201crapidly deteriorating security environment\u201d have already exerted \u201cstiff pressure\u201d on the \u201cglobal arms control regime,\u201d according to the report\u2014the United Nations Conference on Disarmament \u201cunable to reach a single meaningful new agreement\u201d for 20 years.<\/p>\n

At the same time, the authors acknowledge \u201cplausible scenarios\u201d in which AI \u201cplunges the world into a devastating war by error,\u201d concluding that lethal autonomous weapons\u2014employing AI, nanotechnology, and advanced sensors\u2014\u201ccould exacerbate competition and make conflicts more destructive.\u201d Already, \u201cthe risk grows that they will fall into the hands of terrorists, criminals, warlords, or other malign actors.\u201d<\/p>\n

After opposing a treaty<\/a> to govern such weapons in 2021, the U.S. became one of 70 countries to provide the Joint Statement on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems<\/a> to the U.N.\u2019s First Committee on Oct. 21. The statement urges the adoption of \u201cappropriate rules and measures, such as principles, good practices, limitations and constraints\u201d on autonomous weapons to help allay \u201cserious concerns from humanitarian, legal, security, technological and ethical perspectives.\u201d<\/p>\n

The statement praises, despite a lack of \u201cconcrete outcomes,\u201d the \u201cimportant\u201d work being done to explore the implications of lethal autonomous weapons by a U.N. Group of Governmental Experts. It stresses the need for \u201chuman beings to exert appropriate control, judgment and involvement in relation to the use of weapons systems in order to ensure any use is in compliance with International Law, in particular International Humanitarian Law, and that humans remain accountable for decisions on the use of force.\u201d<\/p>\n

In remarks to the U.N. Security Council on Nov. 3, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that the \u201cworld is transforming at breakneck speed\u201d and that lethal autonomous weapons together with cyber warfare \u201care presenting risks we barely comprehend and lack the global architecture to contain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert O. Work said in a call with reporters in September that Western militaries \u201csee AI primarily as a means to help humans make better decisions\u201d\u2014that autonomous weapons are not being \u201cdesigned to supplant the human decision-maker.\u201d<\/p>\n

Work was vice chair of the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence<\/a>, which completed its work in 2021. He now serves as a member of the Board of Advisors for the AI-oriented Special Competitive Studies Project<\/a> and is listed as chairing the board of AI contractor<\/a> SparkCognition Government Systems.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the U.S. conception, our AI systems will be able to create their own courses of action to complete a task assigned to them by a human and choose among them,\u201d Work explained. \u201cBut we are staying far away from any system that could choose its own goals and choose among them.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, he acknowledged that a weapon\u2019s ability to \u201cset its own objectives\u201d is \u201cgoing to be central to competition. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know how authoritarian countries will view this. Perhaps they will assign more decision-making authority to machines than the West would be comfortable doing \u2026 and it might be a fruitful area for discussion among all the competitors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arms control talks could help \u201cmake sure we don\u2019t get to the most dangerous systems that I think of,\u201d Work said\u2014\u201cand those are systems that might be able to unilaterally order a preemptive or a retaliatory strike. That would be extraordinarily destabilizing, and I think it would be in the interest of all competitors to stay away from those type of systems.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a speech to Air Force Academy cadets in February<\/a>, the Space Force\u2019s Vice Chief of Space Operations Gen. David D. Thompson told Cadets the U.S. will need machines that decide to kill\u2014and that confronting the inherent ethical dilemmas \u201ccan\u2019t wait.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Vatican\u2019s Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, delivered a statement to the First Committee on Oct. 12<\/a> arguing that lethal autonomous weapons \u201ccannot maintain compliance with International Humanitarian Law\u201d if they separate \u201cthe unique human capacity for moral judgment from actions that could result in bodily harm or even death.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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