AI, Robotics and Ethics: A Dangerous Slippery-Slope of Unmanned Autonomous Weapons Use in Modern Warfare

Rapid advancements in AI and Robotics (including various types of autonomous unmanned vehicles) are changing almost every aspect of the world we live in. While holding a great promise to make this world a better place insofar as applications of advanced AI in health care, education, manufacturing, agriculture and other domains, AI-based weapons and their use in modern warfare, in current and future armed conflicts, can potentially be extremely devastating. A prominent group of AI researchers, technologists and other scientists and scholars penned an Open Letter in 2014-2015 about these great dangers to the human kind, in which they called for a broad international ban on AI-based weapons. We review the key elements and growing relevance of this Open Letter and especially the call for a ban, in the context of the ongoing war in Ukraine in which the world is witnessing a heavy use of unmanned drones and other autonomous, AI-enabled technologies by both sides in that large-scale armed conflict with high casualties among both the two militaries and the civilian population.

One-Sentence Summary: This short article outlines the growing ethical challenges and concerns stemming from “automation and robotization of modern warfare”, and in particular the dangers from ever-growing use of AI and Robotics, such as aerial and ground unmanned vehicles and drones being heavily used in recent and ongoing conflicts in the former Soviet geopolitical sphere.

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence; Robotics; Unmanned vehicles; Drones; Ethics; Modern warfare

Abbreviations: AI: Artificial Intelligence