Dignity, conflict proliferation and responsibility: how not to argue against autonomous weapon systems

Dignity, conflict proliferation and responsibility: how not to argue against autonomous weapon systems

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연구 분야: Artificial Intelligence

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학회: AI & SOCIETY

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초록

This paper provides a critical review of three prominent lines of debate about the ethical permissibility of autonomous weapon systems (AWS). Specifically, it analyzes their three frequent critiques: the dignity critique, which claims that these systems will violate human dignity; the proliferation critique, which asserts that they will increase the number of armed conflicts; and the responsibility critique, which argues that they will create gaps in responsibility for potential war crimes. It is shown that none of these offers a sufficiently compelling case against the development and use of AWS. The first fails to establish how these systems, as opposed to other methods of warfare, specifically violate human dignity. The second overemphasizes their impact on states’ willingness to engage in war, while overlooking their accessibility to all parties in a conflict and their potential to reduce both the frequency and brutality of warfare. The third overlooks their limited autonomy and the fact that, in similar technological contexts, responsibility gaps either do not arise or are morally unproblematic. While the AWS give rise to various concerns, there seems to be no compelling reason, given the current state of scholarship, to regard them as inherently immoral.

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