February 13, 2015

THINK TANK PUBLISHES REPORT ON TANKS THAT THINK

Featuring: Michael Horowitz, and Paul Scharre

No military technology is perhaps more viscerally upsetting than the idea of a machine, armed with a gun, making the decision on its own to kill people. It's a theme throughout dystopian fiction and films, and it animates protests against drones, despite the fact that military drones still have humans at the controls. Autonomy for weapons--where a gun turret or future machine will be programmed to press the trigger on its own--is a definite possibility in future wars. A new report from the Center for New American Security, a Washington D.C. think tank, wants to guide us calmly into understanding this future of armed thinking machines.

For ease of digestion, the report breaks down the big question of killer robots into smaller questions. The first is about the nature of autonomy itself when it comes to machines.

Read the full article at Popular Science.

Authors

  • Michael Horowitz

    Former Adjunct Senior Fellow, Technology and National Security Program

    Michael C. Hororwitz is a former Adjunct Senior Fellow in the Technology and National Security Program at CNAS. He is currently the Director of Emerging Capabilities Policy Of...

  • Paul Scharre

    Executive Vice President and Director of Studies

    Paul Scharre is the executive vice president and director of studies at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). He is the award-winning author of Four Battlegrounds: Po...