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Articles on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems

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An unmanned U.S. Predator drone flies over Kandahar Air Field, southern Afghanistan, on a moon-lit night several years ago. Drone strikes are now a major feature of modern warfare, including in Ukraine and Syria. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

How Russian and Iranian drone strikes further dehumanize warfare

As Russia’s war in Ukraine illustrates, the use of lethal automated weapons, or LAWS, can always be justified. Their ability to desensitize their users from the act of killing, however, shouldn’t be.
It wouldn’t take much to turn this remotely operated mobile machine gun into an autonomous killer robot. Pfc. Rhita Daniel, U.S. Marine Corps

War in Ukraine accelerates global drive toward killer robots

The technology exists to build autonomous weapons. How well they would work and whether they could be adequately controlled are unknown. The Ukraine war has only turned up the pressure.
The term ‘killer robot’ often conjures images of Terminator-like humanoid robots. Militaries around the world are working on autonomous machines that are less scary looking but no less lethal. John F. Williams/U.S. Navy

An autonomous robot may have already killed people – here’s how the weapons could be more destabilizing than nukes

Sci-fi nightmares of a robot apocalypse aside, autonomous weapons are a very real threat to humanity. An expert on the weapons explains how the emerging arms race could be humanity’s last.
With artificial intelligence weapons on both sides, are we in a new cold war? Dim Dimich/Shutterstock.com

Artificial intelligence is the weapon of the next Cold War

As tensions between the US and Russia escalate, both sides are developing technological capabilities, including artificial intelligence that could be used in conflict.

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