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Cassandra or False Prophet of Doom: AI Robots and War
July/August 2008 (vol. 23 no. 4)
pp. 14-17
ASCII Text
x 
 
Noel Sharkey, "Cassandra or False Prophet of Doom: AI Robots and War," IEEE Intelligent Systems, vol. 23, no. 4, pp. 14-17, July/August, 2008.
 
 
BibTex
x
 
@article{ 10.1109/MIS.2008.60,
author = {Noel Sharkey},
title = {Cassandra or False Prophet of Doom: AI Robots and War},
journal ={IEEE Intelligent Systems},
volume = {23},
number = {4},
issn = {1541-1672},
year = {2008},
pages = {14-17},
doi = {http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MIS.2008.60},
publisher = {IEEE Computer Society},
address = {Los Alamitos, CA, USA},
}
 
 
RefWorks Procite/RefMan/Endnote
x 
 
TY - MGZN
JO - IEEE Intelligent Systems
TI - Cassandra or False Prophet of Doom: AI Robots and War
IS - 4
SN - 1541-1672
SP14
EP17
EPD - 14-17
A1 - Noel Sharkey,
PY - 2008
KW - robotics
KW - artificial intelligence
KW - military
KW - ethics
KW - discrimination
VL - 23
JA - IEEE Intelligent Systems
ER -
 
Noel Sharkey, University of Sheffield
The US military currently deploys more than 4,000 ground robots in Iraq. Most are for bomb disposal but some are armed. In addition to the robots, semi-autonomous unmanned air vehicles come equipped with hellfire missiles. For now, all these systems employ a human-in-the-loop for the application of lethal force. But this is set to change. In the near- to mid-term future, the military might allow autonomous unmanned systems to make their own lethality decisions. This article probes the published US military plans and raises questions about the application of AI to discriminate between innocents and combatants in modern warfare. It points to the main ethical issues in terms of the laws of war and discusses the responsibilities of AI researchers embarking on military projects.

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Index Terms:
robotics, artificial intelligence, military, ethics, discrimination
Citation:
Noel Sharkey, "Cassandra or False Prophet of Doom: AI Robots and War," IEEE Intelligent Systems, vol. 23, no. 4, pp. 14-17, July-Aug. 2008, doi:10.1109/MIS.2008.60
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