Making Drones to Kill Civilians: Is it Ethical?

Abstract

A drone industry has emerged in the US, initially funded almost exclusively for military applications. There are now also other uses both governmental and commercial (in the US and abroad). Many military drones are still being made, however, especially for surveillance and targeted killings. Regarding the latter this essay calls into question their legality and morality. It recognizes that the issues are complex and controversial, but less so as to the killing of non-combatant civilians. The government using drones for targeted killings maintains secrecy and appeals to non-traditional justifications. Most scholars who assess these killer drone practices support citizen immunity, either by favoring a modified just war theory that prioritizes civilians' right to life or by challenging official deviations from applicable laws. They accordingly declare such killing immoral if not a war crime. The manufacturers of these killer drones are not themselves the killers, but they are abetters, i.e., sine qua non facilitators. So, I argue, any company concerned about its corporate social responsibility should cease manufacturing them.

The Dawn of the AI Robots: Towards a New Framework of AI Robot Accountability

“…Besides LAWS there are other considerably autonomous AI robots such as military drones and Big Dog (Lin et al, 2014) that is considered as a carrier of military equipment instead of an attacker robot, yet still in support of war effort. Highly autonomous AI killer robots make decisions on their own-we could consider their manufacturers as facilitators but according to Byrne (2018), not as murderers themselves. Intergovernmental regimes are required to collaborate to hinder the illegal use of military AI robots.…”

“…Developing these autonomous weapons is beyond international peace agreements, yet some countries have invested in their development. A major ethical concern is that humans barely have any chance against highly accurate and intelligent killer robots (Byrne, 2018). Applying originally military AI solutions in non-military settings, for instance, for lifesaving in emergency situations (e.g., identifying and saving people and animals in the event of a major flood) should be further encouraged as these fall under supererogatory applications.…”

“Ethically contentious aspects of artificial intelligence surveillance: a social science perspective”

“…Furthermore, research have demonstrated that applications of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and drones constitute complex technologies augmented by a variety of technologies [ 69 ], necessitating the development of specialized legal frameworks to address civil liberties and privacy concerns [ 18 ]. Non-combatant civilians are being killed by military drones, igniting much controversy [ 6 ]. Previous research has raised concerns regarding armed and autonomous robots' ability to accurately discern between combatants and non-combatants, or to distinguish between dangerous and nonthreatening conduct [ 28 ].…”

Drone views: a multimodal ethnographic perspective

“…This interest was initially sparked by the increased usage of armed drones in military operations, particularly by the US in its 'War on Terror' in Afghanistan and Pakistan (Chamayou, 2015). Consequently, much work has focused on their history and emergence (Kaplan, 2018;Richardson, 2020), as well as key issues related to their usage, including implications for warfare and surveillance (Boyle, 2015;Neve, 2015), the ethics of 'killing from above' (Byrne, 2018;Kirkpatrick, 2015) and the expansion of conflict spatialities, territory and sovereignty (Kindervater, 2017;Shaw, 2013).…”