AS BELOW

Surname 5

Ankri, Mai

Moorpark College

English 101

3/5/17

The Benefits and Uncertainties Associated with Robotics and Artificial Intelligence in Warfare

Thesis Statement: Shifting from the conventional warfare techniques to warfare that involves artificial intelligence and robotics would bring about uncertainties despite the benefits associated with these technologies.

1. Evolution of Warfare

1. The history of warfare dates back to the start of civilization to the modern times

1. Ancient warfare techniques involved the use of weapons such as the bow and arrow or the spear.

2. Technological advances led to the development of firearms, faster airplanes, unmanned, bomb-carrying vehicles as well as laser-guided weapons.

3. Unmanned aerial vehicles and drones came into enabling the deployment of weapons safely while far away from the place of war

4. Other modern technologies; fly-by-wire technology, submarines, missiles, space weapons and nuclear weapons

1. Conventional warfare versus warfare involving robotics and artificial intelligence

1. Conventional warfare is carried out using battlefield tactics and conventional weapons in open confrontation

2. Warfare involving artificial intelligence and robotics enable robots to make choices without human influence and on their own.

1. Some robots that will be used in warfare

1. The self-driving car which only has to be directed on where to go

2. The armed drone flies remotely, chooses the target, and launches the missile.

3. The Chess Software using the self-driving car’s vision technology and making its own tactical decisions to navigate and recognize targets.

4. The pentagon’s robots with the capacity of killing on their own

1. Benefits of robotics and artificial intelligence in warfare

1. Robotics would offer precision and speed unmatched by any human beings

2. Reducing the cost and number of soldiers and other military personnel exposed to dismemberment and potential death in battle.

3. Robots can go to unknown and risky places where the human beings would be crushed

4. Robots can provide information that the human beings cannot get

5. They can carry out repetitive task without getting tired or bored and also work on a 24/7 basis.

1. Uncertainties Associated with Robotics and Artificial Intelligence in Warfare

1. Computers and robots cannot be truly trusted although they are not human beings

2. Robots might be able to gain some scale of autonomy and possibly cause some danger or threat to innocent humans.

3. It might be difficult to put in place any rules of engagement for robots killing humans in war as robots, being machine would at times decide right from wrong

4. It would not be possible to hold robots accountable for mistakes such as death that should not have occurred

5. Creating them military robots would also be costly with funds coming out of the income taxes collected from citizens by the government.

Sources Being Used

Barno, David and Nora Bensahel. The Irrelevance of Traditional Warfare. 27 January 2015. https://warontherocks.com/2015/01/the-irrelevance-of-traditional-warfare/. 3 March 2017.

Chow, Denise. 7 Technologies That Transformed Warfare. 19 November 2013. http://www.livescience.com/41321-military-war-technologies.html. 3 March 2017.

Knight, Will. Military Robots: Armed, but How Dangerous? 3 August 2015. https://www.technologyreview.com/s/539876/military-robots-armed-but-how-dangerous/. 3 March 2017.

Roland, Alex. War and Technology. 27 February 2009. http://www.fpri.org/article/2009/02/war-and-technology/. 3 March 2017.

Rosenberg, Matthew and John Markoff. The Pentagon’s ‘Terminator Conundrum’: Robots That Could Kill on Their Own. 25 October 2016. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/26/us/pentagon-artificial-intelligence-terminator.html?_r=0. 3 March 2017.

Rothman, Wilson. Five Reasons Why Humanoid Robots Will Someday Fight Our Wars. 20 May 2009. http://gizmodo.com/5262913/five-reasons-why-humanoid-robots-will-someday-fight-our-wars. 3 March 2017.

Russell, Stuart (a). Robotics: Ethics of artificial intelligence. 27 May 2015. http://www.nature.com/news/robotics-ethics-of-artificial-intelligence-1.17611. 17 March 2017.

Russell, Stuart (b). Robots in war: the next weapons of mass destruction? 17 January 2016. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/robots-in-war-the-next-weapons-of-mass-destruction/. 3 March 2017.