March 01, 2015
The Foreign Policy Essay: The South Korean Sentry—A “Killer Robot” to Prevent War
A new sentry guards the demilitarized zone separating North and South Korea. It is South Korea’s SGR-A1, a robot with the ability to autonomously identify and destroy targets. This autonomous capability would make the SGR-A1 one of the “lethal autonomous weapon systems” targeted today by activists campaigning to “stop killer robots.” One of their principal fears is that such weapons will make conflict cheaper for states and therefore more likely to occur. But the SGR-A1 is a case in point for the opposite: it shows that in some situations, autonomous weapon systems can actually raise the threshold for aggression between states, thereby making war less likely to occur.
Read the full op-ed at Lawfare.
More from CNAS
-
Fire and Ice
Podcast
In this week’s edition of the SpyTalk podcast, Jeff Stein goes deep on the CIA’s looming eviction from Afghanistan with Lisa Curtis, a longtime former CIA, State Department an...
By Lisa Curtis, Jeff Stein, Jeanne Meserve & Alma Katsu
-
Principles for the Combat Employment of Weapon Systems with Autonomous Functionalities
Reports
Introduction An international debate over lethal autonomous weapon systems (LAWS) has been under way for nearly a decade.1 In 2012, the Department of Defense (DoD) issued for...
By Robert O. Work
-
Are ‘killer robots’ the future of warfare?
Podcast
Paul Scharre joins host Suzanna Kianpour to discuss the technology, fears and even potential advantages of developing autonomous weapons. Listen to the full conversation from...
By Paul Scharre
-
The Militarization of Artificial Intelligence
Commentary
Militaries are racing to adopt artificial intelligence (AI) with the aim of gaining military advantage over competitors. And yet, there is little understanding of AI’s long-te...
By Paul Scharre
