Beyond "Stop Killer Robots": The Ethical Issue of Autonomous Weapon System
DOI : 10.22901/trans.2019.12.1.5
Publisher : Ewha Institute for the Humanities: EIH
Research Area : Other Humanities
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KAIST Boycott Affair has made us take the ethics related to military robots seriously. No one would deny that ‘killer robots’ should be banned. However, it is not crystal clear what the slogan “stop killer robots” implies for the development of autonomous weapon systems and their uses in warfare. Just as all soldiers are not merely killers, so are robots on the battlefield. Many ethical discussion on ‘killer robots’ hangs on the definition of wrongful killings in warfare since there might be ethically permissible acts of killing. In this article, I begin with an attempt to classify various kinds of military robots. Then, I diagnose the core ethical problems of using military robots by adopting just war theory. It is claimed that the operation of military robots can be justified only when it meets the principle of discrimination and the principle of proportionality. Finally, I argue that a new negotiation is needed on how to distribute the responsibilities to relevant groups before the uses of autonomous weapons.
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