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45 Geo. J. Int'l L. 617 (2013-2014)
Autonomous Weapons and Human Responsibilities

handle is hein.journals/geojintl45 and id is 645 raw text is: ARTICLES AUTONOMOUS WEAPONS AND HUMAN RESPONSIBILITIES JACK M. BEARD* ABSTRACT Although remote-controlled robots flying over the Middle East and Central Asia now dominate reports on new military technologies, robots that are capable of detecting, identifying, and killing enemies on their own are quietly but steadily movingfrom the theoretical to the practical. The enormous difficulty in assigning responsibilities to humans and states for the actions ofthese machines grows with their increasing autonomy. These developments implicate serious legal, ethical, and societal concerns. This Article focuses on the accountability of states and underlying human responsibilities for autonomous weapons under Interna- tional Humanitarian Law or the Law of Armed Conflict. After reviewing the evolution of autonomous weapon systems and diminishing human involvement in these systems along a continuum of autonomy, this Article argues that the elusive search for individual culpability for the actions of autonomous weapons foreshadows fundamental problems in assigning responsibility to states for the actions of these machines. It further argues that the central legal requirement relevant to determining accountability (especially for violation of the most important international legal obligations protecting the civilian population in armed conflicts) is human judgment. Access to effective human judgment already appears to be emerging as the deciding factor in establishing practical restrictions and framing legal concerns with respect to the deployment of the most advanced autonomous weapons. I. INTRODUCTION .................................... 618 II. THE TECHNOLOGY OF AUTONOMOUS WEAPONS AND THE DIMINISHING ROLE OF HUMANS ........................ 622 A. Autonomy, Artificial Intelligence, and the Inexorable March of Smart Machines ............................ 622 B. A Continuum ofAutonomy in Military Technologies ...... 625 1. Fire-and-Forget Weapons .................. 628 * Assistant Professor, University of Nebraska College of Law; former Associate Deputy General Counsel (International Affairs), U.S. Department of Defense. The author greatly appreciates helpful comments by Matthew Schaefer, Brian Lepard, and Richard Moberly on earlier drafts. @ 2014,Jack M. Beard. 617