National positions and regulatory perspectives concerning use of lethal autonomous weapons systems in warfare

Abstract

With the rapid speed of artificial intelligence in various sectors of society nowadays, whether positive or negative, it comes to no surprise that artificial intelligence is also found in military, as an integral component of lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS). Such almost inevitable advanced weapons systems could considerably alter the future of warfare as well as armed conflicts in general. However, they also pose numerous humanitarian risks and other aspects of risks correlating to legal and moral responsibilities as well as ethics. It is also important to assess whether such weapons systems are compliant with existing international (humanitarian) law rules and to evaluate challenges of LAWS development and usage implications ranging from scientific to political debates. Nevertheless, the principal issue of the subject matter of LAWS is that there is no robust consensus between states on the matter how to establish an operationalized definition of LAWS and if LAWS development and usage should be prohibited.