The Case Against an Autonomous Military - Facts So Romantic

In 2016, a Mercedes-Benz executive was quoted as saying that the company's self-driving autos would put the safety of its own occupants first. This comment brought harsh reactions about luxury cars mowing down innocent bystanders until the company walked back the original statement. Yet protecting the driver at any cost is what drivers want: A recently published study in Science (available to read on arXiv) shows that, though in principle people want intelligent cars to save as many lives as possible (like avoiding hitting a crowd of children, for example), they also want a car that will protect its occupants first. It would be hard to trust this algorithm because we--the humans nominally in charge of the A.I.--don't ourselves have the "right" ethical answer to this dilemma. Besides, and potentially worse, the algorithm itself might change.