The Realities of Autonomous Weapons

Available open access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. The realities of autonomous weapons are a complex blend of both existing military technologies and visions of their future capabilities. The expected ramifications are profound and always point to the interplay between fact and fiction, actual developments and creative imagination. This book explores how these realities shape and become themselves shaped by popular culture, regulatory and ethics debates, military doctrines, policies and research. It examines phenomena ranging from film and artistic interpretations to warfare scenarios and weaponized artificial intelligence. Intended for researchers (including the disciplines of political and social sciences, media, culture and technology), policy makers, educators and journalists, this is a key resource that uncovers how autonomous weapons are constructed as both a technological reality and a futuristic-possibility.

Thomas Christian Bächle is Head of the Digital Society Research Programme at the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society in Berlin and Researcher at the University of Bonn. Jascha Bareis is Researcher at the Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and Associate Researcher at the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society.

The realities of autonomous weapons: Hedging a hybrid space of fact and fiction - Jascha Bareis & Thomas Christian Bächle I. Narratives and Theories ARTWORK. «The Unreachable Myth: Killing unknown victims with insensible means by unidentified perpetrators for unapparent reason» By Jinyu Wang, 2023 The AI-Lure of US Airpower: Imaginaries of disruption in the pursuit of technological superiority since the early 20th century - Jennifer Rooke From Maschinenmensch to Robot Bubs: Female-presenting autonomous weapons systems in live-action films from 1927-2022 - Rebecca Jones Autonomous weapons in fiction and the fiction of autonomous weapons - Teresa Heffernan From the reel to the real: Narratives of weaponized artificial intelligence technologies in India - Ingvild Bode & Shimona Mohan II. Technologies and Materialities ARTWORK. «Transformator». By Peter Behrbohm, since 2013 Il/legal war: Expanding the frame of meaningful human control from military operations to democratic governance - Lucy Suchman From network-centric warfare to autonomous warfighting networks: Recontextualising autonomous weapons systems imaginaries - Christoph Ernst Governing autonomies: Imagining responsible AI in the European armament project 'Future Combat Air System' - Jens Hälterlein New media, new enemies: The emergence of automated weapons in counterterrorism - Jeremy Packer and Joshua Reeves III. Politics and Ethics ARTWORK. «XCI|XCIX, (91|99)» By Johannes Weilandt, 2023 Engineering moral failure? The challenges of algorithmic ethics for lethal autonomous weapon systems - Elke Schwarz Legitimizing and contesting Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems in Japan: A multi-layered analysis of public discourse - Bernhard Seidl The reality of (past) Future Air Combat Systems: Climate wars, carbon costs and rare earth elements - Jutta Weber Showcasing power, performing responsibility? Introducing military AI discourses in China - Thomas Christian Bächle and Xiran Liu