In the battlefield of the near future, or of a little-told present, life-and-death decisions are not made by humans, but by algorithms. Autonomous weapons guided by artificial intelligence, identify and hit targets without any human intervention. It is no longer a science fiction scenario, and if we don't act now it could become "normal": this is the alarm raised by the Vienna Conference on AI weapons.
The “Oppenheimer moment” of artificial intelligence
The Vienna Conference, an international summit that brought together around 1000 participants from more than 140 countries, compared the current situation of autonomous weapons to “Oppenheimer moment” of our generation. Like gunpowder and the atomic bomb, AI has the potential to revolutionize warfare, making human conflicts unimaginably different and far more lethal.
The conference's final statement is a heartfelt plea to establish rules for AI weapons while they are still in their infancy.
We have a responsibility to act and implement the rules we need to protect humanity. Human control must prevail over the use of force.
Autonomous weapons, killer drones: an increasingly closer reality
Thanks to sophisticated sensors governed by algorithms, any type of weapon can be transformed into an autonomous system capable of identifying, selecting and attacking human targets without any external intervention. Although most of these weapons are still at the idea or prototype stage, already the war in Ukraine gave us a glimpse of their potential.
Austria, a neutral country that actively promotes disarmament in international forums, organize and host a meeting to report the problem. In 2023 the Vienna Conference presented the first UN resolution to regulate autonomous weapons systems, gaining support of 164 states. The Austrian Foreign Minister alexander schallenberg warned that now is the time to agree on international rules and norms to ensure human control over these weapons.
A race against time
The Vienna Conference represents an important step towards the regulation of autonomous weapons, but there is still a long way to go. With the rapid advancement of AI, the risk is that the development of these weapons will outpace our ability to control them. It is a race against time, in which what is at stake is not only the future of war, but the very destiny of humanity.
Faced with this epochal challenge, we cannot afford to remain inert. Regulating autonomous weapons is not just a question of pragmatism. As a global society, we have a duty to define the limits of what we are willing to delegate to machines, especially when it comes to life-or-death decisions.
The Vienna conference lit a spotlight on this crucial issue, but now it is up to all of us to keep the flame alive. Governments, international organizations, experts and citizens must join forces to build a solid and shared regulatory framework, before it is too late.
