Integrating Artificial Intelligence into Weapon Systems

TL;DR

This paper discusses the strategic implications, development challenges, and ethical considerations of integrating AI into weapon systems, emphasizing the need for resilient, adaptable, and ethically aware AI in future warfare.

Contribution

It presents a framework for developing adaptive AI/ML systems in weaponry and analyzes the strategic, security, and ethical implications of fully integrating AI into military operations.

Findings

AI systems range from brittle to resilient, affecting battlefield effectiveness.

Fully automated AI weapon systems are likely to become prevalent without regulation.

Integration of cyber and physical security is crucial for AI-enabled weapons.

Abstract

The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into weapon systems is one of the most consequential tactical and strategic decisions in the history of warfare. Current AI development is a remarkable combination of accelerating capability, hidden decision mechanisms, and decreasing costs. Implementation of these systems is in its infancy and exists on a spectrum from resilient and flexible to simplistic and brittle. Resilient systems should be able to effectively handle the complexities of a high-dimensional battlespace. Simplistic AI implementations could be manipulated by an adversarial AI that identifies and exploits their weaknesses. In this paper, we present a framework for understanding the development of dynamic AI/ML systems that interactively and continuously adapt to their user's needs. We explore the implications of increasingly capable AI in the kill chain and how this will lead inevitably to a fully automated, always on system, barring regulation by treaty. We examine the potential of total integration of cyber and physical security and how this likelihood must inform the development of AI-enabled systems with respect to the "fog of war", human morals, and ethics.

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