Weapons with minds of their own
Reveal
The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX
4.7 • 8.7K Ratings
🗓️ 26 June 2021
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The future of warfare is being shaped by computer algorithms that are assuming ever greater control over battlefield technology. Will this give machines the power to decide who to kill?
The United States is in a race to harness gargantuan leaps in artificial intelligence to develop new weapons systems for a new kind of warfare. Pentagon leaders call it “algorithmic warfare.” But the push to integrate AI into battlefield technology raises a big question: How far should we go in handing control of lethal weapons to machines?
We team up with The Center for Public Integrity and national security reporter Zachary Fryer-Biggs to examine how AI is transforming warfare and our own moral code.
In our first story, Fryer-Biggs and Reveal’s Michael Montgomery head to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Sophomore cadets are exploring the ethics of autonomous weapons through a lab simulation that uses miniature tanks programmed to destroy their targets.
Next, Fryer-Biggs and Montgomery talk to a top general leading the Pentagon’s AI initiative. They also explore the legendary hackers conference known as DEF CON and hear from technologists campaigning for a global ban on autonomous weapons.
Machines are getting smarter, faster, and better at figuring out who to kill in battle. But should we let them?
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| 0:00.0 | It's one of Britain's most notorious crimes, the killing of a wealthy family at White House |
| 0:06.3 | Farm. But I got a tip that the story of this famous case might be all wrong. |
| 0:13.7 | I know there's going to be a twist, won't they, a massive twist. |
| 0:16.6 | At every level of the criminal justice system, there's been a cover-up in this case. |
| 0:20.5 | I'm Heidi Blake. |
| 0:21.9 | Blood Relatives is a new series |
| 0:23.7 | from In the Dark and The New Yorker. |
| 0:26.1 | Find it now in the In-the-Dark podcast feed. |
| 0:34.6 | From the Center for Investigative Reporting in PRX, this is Reveal. |
| 0:39.4 | I'm Al-Letting. |
| 0:41.1 | I want to take you to Libya. |
| 0:43.7 | It's September 2011. |
| 0:46.7 | NATO's air war against Moimar Gaddafi is in its six months. |
| 0:51.1 | Rebels are gaining the upper hand. |
| 0:53.3 | Gaddafi is on the run. His days are numbered, |
| 0:56.1 | but his forces aren't folding. The battle for Libya is not over yet with the heaviest combat |
| 1:03.4 | for days between anti-Gaddafi forces and supporters of the fugitive colonel. |
| 1:09.7 | With NATO jets pressing down, there's word that troops loyal to Gaddafi are bombing civilians. |
| 1:15.6 | British pilots are getting reports that about 400 miles south of Tripoli, there's a humanitarian crisis unfolding. |
| 1:22.6 | Zachary Friar Biggs covers national security for the Center for Public Integrity. |
| 1:28.0 | A bunch of tanks and artillery are outside of a small town, |
| 1:31.5 | and they're lobbying all kinds of bombs and munitions into the town. |
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