AI on track to ‘crowd out’ human decision-making in warfare

Artificial intelligence is already being widely used on the battlefield, and the role of human judgment in military operations is shrinking rapidly, the head of the UN’s independent disarmament research institute warned on Tuesday. In a briefing at UN Headquarters in New York, UNIDIR Director Robin Geiss had a stark question for journalists: “Are we going to let machines target and kill human beings?” he asked, warning that AI was increasingly “on track to crowding out human decision-making” in the sector. The UN Secretary General has been repeatedly urging stakeholders to make sure we do not cross this "moral red line."Master and commanderAI is being given a growing number of responsibilities in military affairs, from intelligence analysis and target identification to drone operations and orchestrating cyber-attacks.Crucially, this comes at the expense of human judgement, including in the nuclear domain, Mr. Geiss stressed. The shift is dramatically increasing the pace of battlefield operations, shortening the time between identifying and striking targets and allowing forces to engage an unprecedented number of targets each day. At the same time, many of these evolving AI systems ...