Adding AI to Autonomous Weapons Increases Risks to Civilians in Armed Conflict

Earlier this month, a high-level, congressionally mandated commission released its long-awaited recommendations for how the United States should approach artificial intelligence (AI) for national security. The recommendations were part of a nearly 800-page report from the National Security Commission on AI (NSCAI) that advocated for the use of AI but also highlighted important conclusions on key risks posed by AI-enabled and autonomous weapons, particularly the dangers of unintended escalation of conflict. The commission identified these risks as stemming from several factors, including system failures, unknown interactions between these systems in armed conflict, challenges in human-machine interaction, as well as an increasing speed of warfare that reduces the time and space for de-escalation. These same factors also contribute to the inherent unpredictability in autonomous weapons, whether AI-enabled or not. From a humanitarian and legal perspective, the NSCAI could have explored in more depth the risks such unpredictability poses to civilians in conflict zones and to international law.