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12 Yale J. Int'l Aff. 71 (2017)
Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems: Adapting to the Future Unmanned Warfare and Unaccountable Robots

handle is hein.journals/yaljoina12 and id is 77 raw text is: Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems Adapting to the Future of Unmanned Warfare and Unaccountable Robots By Ai Wrt dAek Hillas ABSTRACT In response to a push from civil society to confront the legal and ethical dimensions of lethal robotics, the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons convened a four-day Meeting ofExperts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS) in 2o14, which was followed by five-day meetings in 2015 and 2016. This was the first occasion diplomats had openly discussed or even considered the prospect of lethal autonomy. Many issues remain unresolved. In response, this article seeks to address the question, how do lawmakers and policymakers in the United States envisage responding to the advent ofLAWS? As a new addition to literature on lethal autonomy, the article considers whether a robot with either strongArtgifcial Intelligence (Al) orArtificial Consciousness (AC) could obtain moral agency and stand trial in the U.S. military justice system. The necessary reforms within the Unform Code ofMilitary Justice (UCMJ) are ultimately deemed too difficult to achieve, meaning that LAWS will not obtain personhood unless robots are conferred moral agency first under civilian criminal law. The status of Military Working Dogs (MW'Ds), which are alive and conscious, is then utilized as a case study to illustrate how unattainably high the bar for moral agency isfor animals and robots alike, suggesting that the training and development of what we call the Machine's Human Operator/Overseer (MHO) - humans who will either share in the responsibility or be held solely accountable for the actions ofLAWS during human-machine teaming missions - could utilize lessons gained from MWD handlers in previous conflicts. INTRODUCTION T hat landscape of war and how it is conducted is changing exponentially. For the first time in history, humankind is confronted with the prospect that autonomous robots may join the battlefield. They will come in all shapes and sizes. Some of these machines will be fighting under the same flag as a nation- state, while others may be enemy combatants with no fixed address or fear of death. Indeed, the advent of LAWS is an emerging game changer for the next generation of soldiers, seamen, airmen, marines, and politicians. The likely disruptive effect of the singularity, which may broadly be defined as a technology-driven revolution that will impact almost all aspects of society including law, science, and even philosophy, Yale Journal of International Affairs Volume 12 Spring 2017 - Page 71

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