Artificial intelligence is changing warfare
Robots, drones, torpedoes… Thanks to technologies ranging from computer vision to sophisticated sensors, all types of weapons can be transformed into autonomous systems controlled by AI algorithms. Autonomy does not mean that a weapon “wakes up in the morning and decides to go to war,” says Stuart Russell, professor of computer science at the University of California at Berkeley, in an interview with Agence France-Presse (AFP). “This means they are capable of locating, selecting and attacking human targets without human intervention. »
These deadly autonomous weapon systems are also called “killer robots,” a term that brings to mind androids straight out of science fiction. “This is one of the options studied, but in my opinion it is the least useful of all,” notes the specialist. Most of these weapons are still ideas or prototypes, but Russia’s war in Ukraine offers a glimpse of their potential.
Telecommunications problems have pushed armies to make their drones more autonomous. As a result, “people are fleeing underground,” notes Stuart Russell, and this heralds a profound change in the nature of war, “where being visible anywhere on the battlefield would be a death sentence.”
Autonomous weapons have several potential advantages: efficiency, mass production at lower cost, absence of human emotions such as fear or anger, absence of radioactive craters in their wake… But they raise major ethical questions regarding evaluation and engagement. And above all: “Because there is no need for human supervision, you can launch as many as you want,” points out Stuart Russell, “potentially destroying an entire city or an entire ethnic group at once.”