Humans make errors in war all the time. A lot of war is done by 19-year-olds with a few months of training. But we have an understanding, both socially and legally, of what those errors look like, and what it means when they happen. And we have procedures.
You can court-martial a 19-year-old. It’s very hard to court-martial an algorithm.
Days after a drone was used in an assassination attempt on Iraq’s prime minister, military tech journalist Kelsey Atherton spoke to New Lines’ Faisal Al Yafai about their use in the wars of the past, present and future. They discuss how drones changed modern warfare, how emerging technologies will affect future conflicts — and why the real threat from killer robots is not what you might think.