Weapons with minds of their own

Reveal

The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX

News

4.7 • 8K Ratings

🗓️ 2 October 2021

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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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?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Alan. I hope 2022 has been a good year for you. But to be honest, it's been a tough one for us.
0:08.0	This year, Reveal was struck by a financial crisis that jeopardized our very existence.
0:14.0	But we've rallied, and all the while that was happening, our staff forged ahead to produce ambitious investigations
0:22.0	that exposed corruption and abuses that the powerful interests did not want revealed.
0:27.0	Because that's what we do. If we're going to keep telling these kind of stories though, we're going to need support from you.
0:34.0	To support fearless investigative nonprofit journalism, please donate by December 31st.
0:41.0	Just visit revealnews.org slash 2023. Again, to donate to the show and to support our work into the future.
0:48.0	Please visit revealnews.org slash 2023. And from the bottom of my heart, thank you.
1:04.0	From the Center for Investigative Reporting in PRX, this is reveal. I'm Al Letson.
1:09.0	And today, we're bringing back a story we first aired earlier this year.
1:14.0	It's a story that takes us back 10 years to September 2011 and the war in Libya.
1:21.0	NATO's air war against Moor Markadafi is in its sixth month.
1:27.0	Rebels are gaining the upper hand. Gaddafi is on the run. His days are numbered. But his forces aren't folding.
1:35.0	The battle for Libya is not over yet with the heaviest combat for days between anti-Gaddafi forces and supporters of the fugitive kernel.
1:45.0	With NATO jets pressing down, there's word that troops loyal to Gaddafi are bombing civilians.
1:52.0	British pilots are getting reports that about 400 miles south of Tripoli, there is a humanitarian crisis unfolding.
1:59.0	National Security reporter Zach Fryer-Biggs followed this story for the Center for Public Integrity.
2:05.0	A bunch of tanks and artillery are outside of a small town and they're loving all kinds of bombs and munitions into the town.
2:13.0	These British pilots hear about this and they see an opportunity.
2:19.0	They see an opportunity to protect civilians under attack and to use a weapon in a completely new way.
2:27.0	The pilots head south. They're flying tornado jets equipped with an armor-piercing missile called the Brimstone.
2:36.0	The British pilots have permission to use this Brimstone missile in a way it's never been used in combat before.
	...

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