WAR BY OTHER MEANS
ON AUGUST 29TH, THREE DAYS AFTER A SUICIDE bomber killed 13 American soldiers and 160 civilians at Kabul airport, U.S. military intelligence was tracking what was thought to be another potentially devastating attack: a car driving towards the airport carrying “packages” that looked suspiciously like explosives. The plan was to lock in on the car by video with one of the Army’s Reaper drones and destroy it with a Hellfire missile at a moment when there were no innocent civilians nearby. Sure enough, the car came to a stop at a quiet spot.
The tactical commander, most likely working at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada, had received the green light from General Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., the head of U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Florida. Since video feeds have to ricochet among military commanders spread out around the world, they are often delayed by several seconds. In this case, that lag may have been time enough for a handful of civilians to approach the target vehicle, according to the U.S. military. The blast killed as many as ten Afghan civilians, including seven children, and raised an international outcry. Doubts have surfaced over whether the car even posed a threat in the first place.
As military strategists ponder how to prevent future threats from ISIS, al Qaeda and other groups that could arise in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan—or any other distant location, for that matter—they are searching for a better way of attacking from afar. That search is leading in a disturbing direction: letting the machines decide when, and perhaps whom, to kill.
In coming years, Reapers and other U.S. drones will be equipped with advanced artificial intelligence technology. That raises a startling scenario: military drones squirreled away in tiny, unmanned bases in or near Afghanistan, ready to take off, scan the territory, instantly analyze the images they take in, identify and target terrorist activity, ensure the target is clear of civilians, fire a missile, confirm the kill and return to base—all with little or no human intervention.
The motivation to equip Reaper drones with artificial intelligence (AI) is not primarily humanitarian, of course. The true purpose of AI weaponry is to achieve overwhelming military advantage—and in this
