In 2019 , American military at an Iraqi base underwent a strenuous time because their equipment had detected an enemy drone coming over their based with lethal intentions.
The military scrambled their counter drone missiles to meet this threat face on. This missile would circle the target twice missing to hit it and then detonated mid-air to prevent a ground explosion.
On closer examining , the troops found that the drone that was meant to attack them was not some state-of-art killer drone . But it was merely a simple balloon.
This was one of many first types of aerial warfare that have become prominent of Iraq and it is a cause of concern. Terrorist forces now , for once , have the upper hand on the US Military with their low cost drones.
These drones can be made for as cheap as $1000 and have equally devastating impact as the US ones. They are the new IEDs that American military have had to face in Afghanistan and Iraq. They also seem to have little to no counter-play which is a cause of concern.
The very use of these indicates a shift in the paradigm where more and more rogue armies are beginning to utilize these to wage cost-effective warfare against their better funded counterparts. It also encourages in increase in research being dedicated to make autonomous warfare devices ,smaller, faster and cheaper to manufacture.
Autonomous warfare already raises many questions and many a researcher have pointed out it’s fallacies. It’s fallacies include
- Immoral – these devices use AI for target recognition which is a dangerous thing because AI has not been fully developed to it’s extent and is capable of making mistakes. Moreover in the words of UN Secretary General António Guterres “machines with the power and discretion to take lives without human involvement are politically unacceptable, morally repugnant and should be prohibited by international law.”
- Threat to Security – the more and more these algorithms are developed the faster the technology behind them improves. As more and more money is being pumped into the research of these technologies it sends out waves to other armies that autonomous warfare is the future and very soon many countries will openly use these pieces of technology to violate morality across the globe. Even worse as the production of these becomes more widespread, they will make their way into the black markets into the waiting hands of organizations wanting to cause chaos , topple governments etc.
So what can we do about this ?
The international committee of the red cross is actively campaigning to implement some regulations to make the process safer for all parties involved. They include the following :
- No human targets
- Restrict unpredictability
- Human Control
The ones that are stated above should make a world of difference if implement correctly. Hopefully the governments of the world are still human enough to recognize the major threat we face and the results of what could be a dystopian future.
Sources :
https://www.ft.com/content/4249f167-2ac7-43ad-8069-6798b097ddda
This looks really concerning. Before we realize the war can become like something form a Sci-Fi movie. This might completely challenge my point of view how I saw an AI, and that it could really become killer machine like from Terminator.
If I could, I’d start a military company in these times.
Upcoming food shortages are not going to do any good to struggling countries.
I’m not saying it’s going to be a fight for resources, but anger in people. Like in Kazachstan. Maybe another Arab spring.