Chapter

The humanitarian imperative for minimally-just AI in weapons

Jason Scholz and Jai Galliott

Lethal autonomous weapons : re-examining the law and ethics of robotic warfare

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2021

p. 57-72

English

For the use of force to be lawful and morally just, future autonomous systems must not commit humanitarian errors or acts of fratricide. To achieve this, the authors distinguish a novel preventative form of minimally-just autonomy using artificial intelligence (MinAI) to avert attacks on protected symbols, protected sites, and signals of surrender. MinAI compares favorably with respect to maximally-just forms proposed to date. The authors examine how fears of speculative artificial general intelligence has distracted resources from making current weapons more compliant with international humanitarian law, particularly Additional Protocol 1 of the Geneva Convention and its Article 36.

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• Lethal autonomous weapons : re-examining the law and ethics of robotic warfare / edited by Jai Galliott, Duncan MacIntosh & Jens David Ohlin