Internal Security

LAWS (or) Killer Robots

·        These are weapons deployed without human interventions using Artificial intelligence.

·        It will operate in the air, on land, on water, under water, or in space.

Arguments against LAWS

·        Moral crisis – LAWS places the decision to kill, in the hands of machines and it is hard to distinguish between combatants and non-combatants by a machine.

·        Question of Liability – Currently, in case of any violations of International treaties, individual soldiers or their commanders can be held responsible for their actions.

·        When an autonomous machine commits a war crime, who will take the responsibility remains a major question.

·        It will scale up the incidence of number of wars, as there is no involvement of humans in the battle field.

·        It would encourage weapon race among nations, if not regulated.

·        These weapons will proliferate rapidly, ultimately falling into the hands of authoritarian regimes.

Why banning is not a solution?

·        Autonomous weapons by themselves are likely to lower the threshold for war as these weapons increase the cost of aggression, thereby deterring conflict.

·        Moreover, Political, geographical and historical drivers are far more likely to influence a state’s decision to enter into an armed conflict rather than a weapon system.

·        LAWS rely on advancements in AI and machine learning.

·        Most developments in AI are taking place in the civilian sector, with the potential for “dual-use” military capabilities.

·        So, the argument that a ban might prevent such weapons from landing in the hands of a dictator is unconvincing.

·        It is currently impossible to define which kinds of autonomous weapons need to be banned given the dearth of functioning prototypes.

·        LAWS with its enough technological sophistication and time can meet the International Humanitarian Law (IHL) thresholds of distinction between combatants and non-combatants.

·        Rather than mischaracterizing LAWS as new weapons of mass destruction or harbingers of a dystopian future, it is critical to develop principles and norms to govern their use.

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