Automated war

A new era where weapons of war are becoming more intelligent and more enabled by data — such as unmanned ships, submarines or drones — raises complex challenges for national and global security.

Threat level: If technology is allowed "to start making big decisions on its own ... we might be doomed by technological advances," David Petraeus, former CIA director and retired four-star general, tells "Axios on HBO."

Driving the news: Experts are grappling with the ethics of developing autonomous weapons, which suggest the possibility of a computer deciding on its own to take human life.

• UN Secretary-General António Guterres has urged AI experts to ban autonomous weapons, calling them “morally repugnant.”
• Drones — low profile and easily preprogrammed with GPS routes — are just the beginning of warfare with AI. Recently, a drone blast killed several people in Yemen, including the Yemeni government's head of military intelligence.

Fully autonomous weapons don't exist today, but Petraeus warns even a world of semi-autonomous weapons could create a frightening future for humankind.

• "All of this is advancing so rapidly that it’s literally difficult to keep up with it intellectually conceptually."

Our thought bubble, per Axios AI reporter Kaveh Waddell: The big challenge now is to slow the world’s slide toward an automated weapons race fueled by mutual distrust and a lack of information.

• As international efforts to ban autonomous weapons stall — in part thanks to the U.S. — look for the Pentagon to update its policies on automation late this year.

Go deeper:

• Special report: Global threats multiple
• Russia and China form a front
• The AI arms race is a self-fulfilling prophecy