UN doc: military drones may have autonomously ‘hunted down’ and attacked troops [pdf]
documents-dds-ny.un.org
documents-dds-ny.un.org
> Logistics convoys and retreating HAF were subsequently hunted down and remotely engaged by the unmanned combat aerial vehicles or the lethal autonomous weapons systems such as the STM Kargu-2 (see annex 30) and other loitering munitions. The lethal autonomous weapons systems were programmed to attack targets without requiring data connectivity between the operator and the munition: in effect, a true “fire, forget and find” capability. The unmanned combat aerial vehicles and the small drone intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capability of HAF were neutralized by electronic jamming from the Koral electronic warfare system.47
Interesting, then the only difference between an „autonomous killer drone“ supposedly uncovered by the UN and a plain and simple fight jet missile is...the duration of the flight of the drone vs the missile?
But then perhaps a missile like an ICBM would take longer than the drone here took? So perhaps even that differentiator does not work.
This argument is fatecious and irrational. You can argue whether it's acceptable to kill. Beyond that it makes rigorously no difference whether you kill someone with your bare hands or by pressing a button.
There may be ethical questions in war, but I don't see why the mechanisms should matter. Perhaps it should but you haven't even come close to making that case.
Maybe my bad for assuming that any reasonable person reading wouldn’t need it stating that killing people is, yes, immoral. And given this shared understanding, the root of my question was why a machine killing people is more immoral.
Generally speaking, over time we have become much more accurate at targeting specific people to kill, but we are still a very long way off from 100% accuracy, and none of the issues you raised are particularly novel to drones.
I would go a step further and point out the fact that while bombs are fired and aimed, landmines are designed specifically to kill and/or main indiscriminately.
By detaching the moral choice from a person it makes killing more acceptable.
At least that's my take.
People are going to bat eyes in the advent of these weapons as well. That is not going to stop Pentagon, China, or Russia from using these weapons.
One issue could be that they are not as reliable as target seekers as they are good as target destroyers. And plenty of mistakes have been committed by humans in charge.
Whether autonomous weapons system will be better than seeking and killing enemy combatants rather than innocent people is something to observe.
Right now, autonomous systems are very very unreliable at this.