Can Open Source Licenses Help Regulate Lethal Autonomous Weapons?

Abstract

LethaL autonomous weapon systems (LAWS, also known as killer robots) are a real and emerging technology that have the potential to radically transform warfare. Because of the myriad of moral, legal, privacy, and security risks the technology introduces, many scholars and advocates have called for a ban on the development, production, and use of fully autonomous weaponsHowever, banning LAWS internationally is not as simple as signing a treaty. In order for a ban to be effective, there should be a means of accountability and control to ensure that the ban is respected by its signatories [3]. Export control is a regulatory mechanism that controls the distribution of certain goods across a country's borders and has traditionally been used to track and control the transfer of high-risk commodities, such as weapons of war. The fact that the critical functions of LAWS are largely dependent on software (an "intangible") poses a number of interesting challenges: Enforcing the export control of LAWS is more difficult than enforcing the export control of weapons whose components are "tangible," because software can be assembled by both state and nonstate actors and can be easily distributed, implemented, or changed remotely and after the point of sale.