June 20, 2019

What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

By Paul Scharre, Richard Danzig, Arati Prabhakar and Jonathan Wilson

War has been a driver of breakthrough technology for a long time. The first waves of artificial intelligence and even the internet came out of DARPA, a defense agency whose original mission was to keep the U.S. technologically ahead of the Soviet Union. But what happens when the battlefield is increasingly dominated by autonomous weapons, which don't require humans in the loop to shoot and kill? In this episode: Arati Prabhakar, former head of DARPA; Richard Danzig, former Navy Secretary; Paul Scharre, author of "Army of None"; and Jonathan Wilson, former Navy SEAL.

Listen to the full conversation on the Sleepwalkers podcast.

More from CNAS

  • Commentary
    • October 19, 2022
    Sharper: The State of AI

    The U.S. government's recent chip export controls are the latest salvo in the U.S.–China rivalry in artificial intelligence. Semiconductors are a key input for AI systems and ...

    By Anna Pederson

  • Video
    • March 8, 2022
    Drone Warfare Just Got Deadlier | System Error

    Drone warfare has transformed combat. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian air force utilized Turkish-made drones to offset some of Russia’s enormous military...

    By Paul Scharre

  • Podcast
    • October 22, 2021
    The Daily Scoop

    Greg Grant joins The Daily Scoop to discuss a recent CNAS paper about improving joint operational concept development within the DoD. And they speak to Bob Work about the ongo...

    By Greg Grant & Robert O. Work

  • Podcast
    • October 12, 2021
    What's next for national security and artificial intelligence

    Artificial Intelligence and China are at the center of a report from the National Security Commission on artificial intelligence. Commission co-chair Robert Work talks with To...

    By Robert O. Work

View All Reports View All Articles & Multimedia