Ethics of Robotic Warfare

Recently, the International Committee for Robot Arms Control (ICRAC) was formed to campaign for limits on military robots used for warfare.

One of the committee's founders, UK Roboticist Noel Sharkey, has campaigned before against allowing these unmanned warbots to make autonomous decisions.

Sharkey told New Scientist Magazine, "Robot weapons are likely to change the character of warfare. We seem to be rushing headlong into the development of autonomous weapons systems without any real concern for the long-term impact on civilian populations."

The ICRAC was also founded by physicist Jürgen Altmann of Dortmund University of Technology (Germany); Robert Sparrow of the Centre for Human Bioethics, Monash University (Australia); and philosopher Peter Asaro of Rutgers University (USA).

We have already seen generous use of the American Predator and Reaper UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) during operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, but these still use human operators during live fire strikes. What this committee wants to prevent is the proliferation of these robotic war machines, their carrying nuclear weaponry, and letting them operate autonomously.

Campaign asks for international treaty to limit war robots (New Scientist)

ICRAC fears the principle of keeping a "man in the loop" will be eroded, so that the next generation of robot soldiers will be trusted with life-or-death decisions. Indeed, research into just such scenarios is taking place with US military funding.

The committee is also worried that countries will be more likely to go to war if their casualties will be robots rather than human soldiers. They have also raised the danger of autonomous systems starting and escalating conflicts automatically.

P.W. Singer is another person who has been rather vocal for us to take a close look at the ethics behind the use of robots in war:

There's a speech in one of the anime or movies I watched recently that I tried to track down on YouTube, but was unsuccessful. I'll tag it on later, if I find it.