Sunlight Glinting on Clouds: Deception and Autonomous Weapons Systems

Abstract

The art of deception has played a significant role in military conflict for centuries and has been discussed extensively. Yet there has been an absence in the literature of any scrutiny of the risks posed by the deception of Autonomous Weapons Systems (AWS). After explaining the nature of AWS, we overview reasons given in their favour and arguments against them. Examples of military deceptive strategies are considered, together with reflections on the nature of deception. The core of the paper is a technical examination of some of the ways that AWS could be deceived and the potential humanitarian consequences. Since AWS have, by definition, an absence of meaningful human control, any deception could remain hidden until too late. We conclude that awareness of the vulnerability of sensing and image processing systems of AWS to deception reinforces and strengthens the case against their development and use.