Deadly US Applications of Artificial Intelligence

In the United States and around the world, public concern is rising at the prospect of weapons systems that would select and attack targets without human intervention. As the United States Department of Defense releases a strategy on artificial intelligence (AI), questions loom about whether the US government intends to accelerate its investments in weapons systems that would select and engage targets without meaningful human control. The strategy considers a range of potential, mostly benign uses of AI and makes the bold claim that AI can help "reduce the risk of civilian casualties" by enabling greater accuracy and precision. The strategy commits to consider how to handle hacking, bias, and "unexpected behavior" among other concerns. Scientists have long warned about the potentially disastrous consequences that could arise when complex algorithms incorporated into fully autonomous weapons systems created and deployed by opposing forces meet in warfare. How would the use of such learning systems conform with current US policy, which commits to "to exercise appropriate levels of human judgment over the use of force"?