You are here

Paul Scharre

You can filter the displayed publications by language

Year of Publication: 2018

Scharre, Paul, Army of None: Autonomous Weapons and the Future of War, New York, W.W. Norton, 2018, pp. 448

An extensive examination of the possibilities and implications of artificial intelligence applied to the battlefield, from drones to 'killer robots', with varying degrees of autonomous ability to make decisions without human intervention. Scharre interviewed engineers creating new weapons and those in the military who might use them. He disagrees with campaigners seeking  a total ban, which he thinks impossible, arguing instead for ensuring a minimum degree of human involvement in their deployment.  

See also: Trying to Restrain the Robots', The Economist, 19 Sept. 2019, pp. 26-27.

A succinct examination of autonomous weapons and of issues arising, starting with the 'Harop' drone produced by Israeli Aerospace Industries, which can be classed as either a remote-controlled weapon or as an autonomous robot, depending on its software at the time. The article reports briefly on the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, a coalition of 89 NGOs, and  concludes by noting that in 2017 the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons  (also known as  the Inhumane Weapons Convention, agreed  in 1980) appointed an expert group to examine the implications of autonomous weapons and different approaches to controlling their use.