The Ethics Of War Machines

BAE Systems unveils its Taranis unmanned stealth aircraft prototype. Photograph: BAE Systems

Should A Robot Decide When To Kill? -- Adrianne Jeffries, The Verge

The ethics of war machines

By the time the sun rose on Friday, December 19th, the Homestead Miami race track had been taken over by robots. Some hung from racks, their humanoid feet dangling above the ground as roboticists wheeled them out of garages. One robot resembled a gorilla, while another looked like a spider; yet another could have been mistaken for a designer coffee table. Teams of engineers from MIT, Google, Lockheed Martin, and other institutions and companies replaced parts, ran last-minute tests, and ate junk food. Spare heads and arms were everywhere.

It was the start of the Robotics Challenge Trials, a competition put on by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the branch of the US Department of Defense dedicated to high risk, high reward technology projects. Over a period of two days, the machines would attempt a series of eight tasks including opening doors, clearing a pile of rubble, and driving a car.

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My Comment: The order to kill will probably remain a human decision in the foreseeable future .... but robot/drone/computer technology is developing very quickly, and who knows where AI (Artificial Intelligence) and other research projects will eventually bring.