Switch to: Citations

Add references

You must login to add references.
  1. Rethinking the Criterion for Assessing Cia-targeted Killings: Drones, Proportionality and Jus Ad Vim.Megan Braun & Daniel R. Brunstetter - 2013 - Journal of Military Ethics 12 (4):304-324.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   16 citations  
  • The Case for Ethical Autonomy in Unmanned Systems.Ronald C. Arkin - 2010 - Journal of Military Ethics 9 (4):332-341.
    The underlying thesis of the research in ethical autonomy for lethal autonomous unmanned systems is that they will potentially be capable of performing more ethically on the battlefield than are human soldiers. In this article this hypothesis is supported by ongoing and foreseen technological advances and perhaps equally important by an assessment of the fundamental ability of human warfighters in today's battlespace. If this goal of better-than-human performance is achieved, even if still imperfect, it can result in a reduction in (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   45 citations  
  • The morality of autonomous robots.Aaron M. Johnson & Sidney Axinn - 2013 - Journal of Military Ethics 12 (2):129 - 141.
    While there are many issues to be raised in using lethal autonomous robotic weapons (beyond those of remotely operated drones), we argue that the most important question is: should the decision to take a human life be relinquished to a machine? This question is often overlooked in favor of technical questions of sensor capability, operational questions of chain of command, or legal questions of sovereign borders. We further argue that the answer must be ?no? and offer several reasons for banning (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   23 citations  
  • The case against robotic warfare: A response to Arkin.Ryan Tonkens - 2012 - Journal of Military Ethics 11 (2):149-168.
    Abstract Semi-autonomous robotic weapons are already carving out a role for themselves in modern warfare. Recently, Ronald Arkin has argued that autonomous lethal robotic systems could be more ethical than humans on the battlefield, and that this marks a significant reason in favour of their development and use. Here I offer a critical response to the position advanced by Arkin. Although I am sympathetic to the spirit of the motivation behind Arkin's project and agree that if we decide to develop (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   5 citations  
  • On the moral responsibility of military robots.Thomas Hellström - 2013 - Ethics and Information Technology 15 (2):99-107.
    This article discusses mechanisms and principles for assignment of moral responsibility to intelligent robots, with special focus on military robots. We introduce the concept autonomous power as a new concept, and use it to identify the type of robots that call for moral considerations. It is furthermore argued that autonomous power, and in particular the ability to learn, is decisive for assignment of moral responsibility to robots. As technological development will lead to robots with increasing autonomous power, we should be (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   39 citations  
  • Moral Predators: The Duty to Employ Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles.Bradley Jay Strawser - 2010 - Journal of Military Ethics 9 (4):342-368.
    A variety of ethical objections have been raised against the military employment of uninhabited aerial vehicles (UAVs, drones). Some of these objections are technological concerns over UAVs abilities’ to function on par with their inhabited counterparts. This paper sets such concerns aside and instead focuses on supposed objections to the use of UAVs in principle. I examine several such objections currently on offer and show them all to be wanting. Indeed, I argue that we have a duty to protect an (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   60 citations  
  • Killer robots.Robert Sparrow - 2007 - Journal of Applied Philosophy 24 (1):62–77.
    The United States Army’s Future Combat Systems Project, which aims to manufacture a “robot army” to be ready for deployment by 2012, is only the latest and most dramatic example of military interest in the use of artificially intelligent systems in modern warfare. This paper considers the ethics of a decision to send artificially intelligent robots into war, by asking who we should hold responsible when an autonomous weapon system is involved in an atrocity of the sort that would normally (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   233 citations  
  • (3 other versions)War and massacre.Thomas Nagel - 1972 - Philosophy and Public Affairs 1 (2):123-144.
    From the apathetic reaction to atrocities committed in Vietnam by the United States and its allies, one may conclude that moral restrictions on the conduct of war command almost as little sympathy among the general public as they do among those charged with the formation of U.S. military policy. Even when restrictions on the conduct of warfare are defended, it is usually on legal grounds alone: their moral basis is often poorly understood. I wish to argue that certain restrictions are (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   107 citations  
  • The responsibility gap: Ascribing responsibility for the actions of learning automata. [REVIEW]Andreas Matthias - 2004 - Ethics and Information Technology 6 (3):175-183.
    Traditionally, the manufacturer/operator of a machine is held (morally and legally) responsible for the consequences of its operation. Autonomous, learning machines, based on neural networks, genetic algorithms and agent architectures, create a new situation, where the manufacturer/operator of the machine is in principle not capable of predicting the future machine behaviour any more, and thus cannot be held morally responsible or liable for it. The society must decide between not using this kind of machine any more (which is not a (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   199 citations  
  • Twenty seconds to comply: Autonomous weapon systems and the recognition of surrender.Robert Sparrow - 2015 - International Law Studies 91:699-728.
    Would it be ethical to deploy autonomous weapon systems (AWS) if they were unable to reliably recognize when enemy forces had surrendered? I suggest that an inability to reliably recognize surrender would not prohibit the ethical deployment of AWS where there was a limited window of opportunity for targets to surrender between the launch of the AWS and its impact. However, the operations of AWS with a high degree of autonomy and/or long periods of time between release and impact are (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   5 citations  
  • Framing robot arms control.Wendell Wallach & Colin Allen - 2013 - Ethics and Information Technology 15 (2):125-135.
    The development of autonomous, robotic weaponry is progressing rapidly. Many observers agree that banning the initiation of lethal activity by autonomous weapons is a worthy goal. Some disagree with this goal, on the grounds that robots may equal and exceed the ethical conduct of human soldiers on the battlefield. Those who seek arms-control agreements limiting the use of military robots face practical difficulties. One such difficulty concerns defining the notion of an autonomous action by a robot. Another challenge concerns how (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   7 citations  
  • Industrial challenges of military robotics.George R. Lucas - 2011 - Journal of Military Ethics 10 (4):274-295.
    Abstract This article evaluates the ?drive toward greater autonomy? in lethally-armed unmanned systems. Following a summary of the main criticisms and challenges to lethal autonomy, both engineering and ethical, raised by opponents of this effort, the article turns toward solutions or responses that defense industries and military end users might seek to incorporate in design, testing and manufacturing to address these concerns. The way forward encompasses a two-fold testing procedure for reliability incorporating empirical, quantitative benchmarks of performance in compliance with (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   5 citations  
  • Arms control for armed uninhabited vehicles: an ethical issue.Jürgen Altmann - 2013 - Ethics and Information Technology 15 (2):137-152.
    Arming uninhabited vehicles (UVs) is an increasing trend. Widespread deployment can bring dangers for arms-control agreements and international humanitarian law (IHL). Armed UVs can destabilise the situation between potential opponents. Smaller systems can be used for terrorism. Using a systematic definition existing international regulation of armed UVs in the fields of arms control, export control and transparency measures is reviewed; these partly include armed UVs, but leave large gaps. For preventive arms control a general prohibition of armed UVs would be (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   5 citations