Dilemmas of representation in a study of autonomous weapon systems: a focus group perspective

• Autor(a) principal: Pekarev, Janar
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.26/45419
• topic: Autonomous Weapon Systems; Unmanned Ground Vehicles; Laws of war; Military ethics; Sistemas de Armamento Autónomos; Veículos Terrestres Não Tripulados; Leis da guerra; Ética militar

Armed forces are developing and integrating technology driven by artificial intelligence (AI) to gain military superiority, yet such promises risk failing to recognise the intrinsic role of public communication risks unbalancing the moral center of gravity in the military domain. Understanding the opinions and concerns of the general public towards autonomous weapon systems (AWS) is relevant for guiding public policy decisions related to their implementation. This paper reports the findings of six focus groups (n=53), which were used to gauge the perceptions and attitudes towards the development of AWS. The study findings indicate that AI-embedded systems should be perceived as decision-making instruments, although with the caveat that any decisions pertaining to life and death matters should not be delegated to a machine. Among the participants, there was also a consensus that any commander giving a direct order to use AWS to carry out a mission should be held responsible for any unlawful killings that may result from that mission. More significantly, a soldier’s patriotism was considered one of the most crucial factors in warfare; however, implementing a patriotic code and increasing autonomous weapons’ algorithmic will to defend would be, according to the participants, difficult to imagine that unmanned platforms can hardly ever be equipped with patriotical algorithms.