Page 8 - ADT JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020 Digital Magazine | GBP

line director at BAE Systems. was opposed by the U.S., South Korea, Russia,
DARPA officials in Arlington, Virginia, had also selected BAE Israel, China and Australia.
Systems Electronic Systems in Nashua, New Hampshire, to While several other countries are also rap-
integrate machine-learning (ML) technology, a subset of AI, into idly developing killer machines with artificial
platforms that decipher radio-frequency (RF) signals. BAE Systems intelligence that independently kill, there is [ REPORT ]
won up to US$4.7 million in funding from DARPA to achieve key resistance to agreeing global rules over their
hardware delivery, integration, and demonstration milestones. use in future wars.
Nations such as the United States, China,
DARPA, part of the U.S. Department of Defence (DoD), is responsible Russia and Israel are now investing in devel-
for the development of emerging technologies for use by the mili- oping lethal autonomous weapons systems
tary. DARPA officials announced in September 2018 a US$2 billion, (LAWS) which can identify, target, and kill a
multiyear campaign to develop the next wave of AI technologies, person all on their own - but to date there
including “contextual reasoning in AI systems to create more trust- are no international laws governing their use,
ing, collaborative partnerships between humans and machines.” experts aver.
Other DARPA projects include the Squad X Experimentation
Program, which aims for human fighters to have a greater sense “Some kind of human control is necessary
of confidence in their autonomous partners, as well as a better ... Only humans can make context-specific
understanding of how the autonomous systems would likely act judgements of distinction, proportionality and
on the battlefield. This is being developed in collaboration with precautions in combat,” said Peter Maurer,
Lockheed Martin Missiles. President of the International Committee of
the Red Cross (ICRC).

The ICRC oversaw the adoption of the 1949
Geneva Conventions that define the laws of
war and the rights of civilians to protection and
assistance during conflicts and it engages with
governments to adapt these rules to modern
warfare. AI researchers, defence analysts and
roboticists said lethal autonomous weapons
systems (LAWS) such as military robots were
no longer confined to the realm of science fic-
tion or video games, but were fast progressing
from graphic design boards to defence engi-
neering laboratories. Within a few years, they
could be deployed by state militaries to the
battlefield, they said, painting dystopian sce-
narios of swarms of drones moving through
Project Maven is another Pentagon project involving using machine a town or city, scanning and selectively killing
learning and engineering talent to distinguish people and objects in their targets within seconds.
drone videos, established in a memo by US DoD on 26 April 2017.
The USAF is investigating how to control multiple unmanned drones “Don’t be mistaken by the nonsense of how intel-
from its latest fighter jets, the F-35A Joint Strike Fighter and the ligent these weapons will be,” Reuters quoted
F-15EX. The drones are to act as wingmen to the manned fighters, Noel Sharkey, chairman of the International
scanning the skies for aerial threats which will then be acted upon Committee for Robot Arms Control as saying.
by the manned fighters. The program would capitalize on the Air “You simply can’t trust an algorithm - no matter
Force’s Skyborg AI program aimed at pairing AI with a human in how smart - to seek out, identify and kill the
the cockpit. correct target, especially in the complexity of
Efforts are on to incorporate Skyborg network into Kratos XQ-58 war,” said Sharkey, who is also an AI and robot-
Valkyrie planned stealthy drone alongside manned fighters, so ics expert at Britain’s University of Sheffield.
the machine can learn how to fly and even train with its pilot. The
drones will then be sent out alongside F-35 Joint Strike Fighters
or other fighters to scout enemy territory ahead of a strike, or to
gather intelligence for the pilot in the formation.

The United Nations in Geneva have been discussing the potential
restrictions under international law to so-called lethal autonomous
weapons systems, which use artificial intelligence to help decide
when and who to kill. In March 2019, the UN held a meeting to dis-
cuss a ban on autonomous weapons called by 25 nations which

8 | January/February 2020 WWW .GBP .COM.SG/ ADT