AI warfare is already here

The Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons meets twice yearly at the United Nations in Geneva to address lethal autonomous systems. In November 2017, attendees initially treated discussions as hypothetical, imagining warfare with killer robots as distant. A screening of “Slaughterbots” changed the atmosphere by presenting an AI drone that selects and kills without human assistance, prompting apprehension. The concern intensified because the Pentagon was already developing related technology under Project Maven, which uses AI to analyze drone surveillance footage. By late 2017, Google had joined Maven. The systems described were not purely futuristic; they were existing platforms with degrees of autonomy that can select and engage targets using sensor data. The shift raised fears that humans could be removed from the targeting loop entirely.

"The mood in the room, Marijan recalls, suddenly turned apprehensive. The most frightening part wasn't the premise it was that the Pentagon was already developing a version of this technology. That meeting was the first one held after the start of Project Maven, a US Department of Defense initiative using AI to analyze drone surveillance footage. And by late 2017, Maven had a major tech company on board: Google."

"They used to say guns don't kill people, people do, its CEO tells the audience. But people don't. They get emotional, disobey orders, aim high. Let's watch the weapons make the decisions. The mood in the room, Marijan recalls, suddenly turned apprehensive."

"Marijan, who is a senior researcher at Project Ploughshares, a peace-focused independent research institute. The systems we were talking about were not futuristic, said Marijan. They were existing platforms that had degrees of autonomy in them, or the capability to select and engage targets based on sensor data and sensor input."

"The world had already seen drone warfare deadly machines directed by humans. Now, it was looking at a future where humans may be removed from the loop entirely. These were not these Terminator-like figures that we were"

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