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AI weapons: Russia’s war in Ukraine shows why the world must enact a ban

Conflict pressures are pushing the world closer to autonomous weapons that can kill without human control. Researchers and the international community must join forces to prohibit them.
  1. Stuart Russell

    1. Stuart Russell is professor of computer science, cognitive science, and computational precision health at the University of California, Berkeley, California, USA.

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One year since Russia’s invasion, an arms race in artificial-intelligence (AI) weaponry is being played out on Ukrainian soil. Western audiences cheer when plucky Ukrainian forces use modified commercial quadcopters to drop grenades on Russian soldiers. They boo when brutal Russian forces send swarms of cheap Iranian cruise missiles to destroy hospitals, power plants and apartment blocks. But this simple ‘us versus them’ narrative obscures a disturbing trend — weapons are becoming ever smarter.

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Nature 614, 620-623 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00511-5

References

  1. United Nations. Final Report of the Panel of Experts on Libya Established Pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1973 (2011) (UN Security Council, 2021).

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  2. Lee, K.-F. ‘The third revolution in warfare’ The Atlantic (11 September 2021).

  3. UN General Assembly. Report of the Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, Christof Heyns (United Nations, 2013).

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  4. Russell, S. Nature 521, 415–418 (2015).

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Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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