None of Us Has the Time to Make All the Mistakes Ourselves… So, We Should Learn from the Mistakes and Successes of Others

Capt. John E. Jackson, United States Navy (retd)

How much autonomy should weapons be allowed is a question most advanced militaries are wrestling with. Are we anywhere close to the answers, given the pace at which technology is advancing?

The answer to this question revolves around two key issues: How we define autonomy and how much trust we have in the intelligent agents being used. At the most basic level, autonomy simply means that an automated system can perform some useful task repeatedly and without direct supervision. A person entering the lobby of the Imperial Towers in Mumbai puts his or her life in the hands of an automated system, an elevator, to safely carry them up 60 floors. We do not question the autonomy being used to transport this person and we have full trust in the system.

At the other extreme is the yet-to-be-proven autonomy of driverless cars. In the relatively near future, it is likely that cars will be able to safely navigate crowded highways and transport passengers between points hundreds of miles apart. When this level of technological sophistication arrives, people will be unlikely to use it until they develop a level of trust necessary to put themselves and their families at risk.

I believe that the same issues dominate any discussion on the use of autonomous weapons. In the second decade of the 21^st century, commanders are willing (and able) to use lower-level autonomy in aerial systems to perform functions such as way-point navigation and station-keeping over a designated target. They are not willing to allow a higher-level autonomous system to select targets and launch weapons at the discretion of the intelligent agent aboard the unmanned aircraft. There is neither the political will, nor the trust necessary to allow this to happen.

Discussions on the use of Lethal Autonomous Weapons (LAWS) are taking place daily at the Naval War College and in the halls of the Pentagon. We are not yet close to an answer, but we are well down the path of considering the legal