Isaac Asimov's Runaround

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Recommended: Critical analysis of military robots

Military Use of Robotics and Ethics
In the short story “Runaround”, published in 1942, the author Isaac Asimov introduced Three Laws of Robotics to his readers. Briefly speaking, these laws prohibited a robot from injuring or killing a human being under any condition, even if its owner asked it to do so. However, by the end of year 2008, there were around 12,000 U.S. military robots on the ground in Iraq (Singer, 2011). It seems like the three laws of robotics do not apply to the real world. It is natural to think that the use of military robotics will reduce the casualties of their interested parties, but, in reality, robots can be out of control due to various reasons, including technical errors and unethical commands from programmers or commanders. This article will illustrate the advantages and disadvantages of military robotics in battlefields, and discuss the need for adaptations of ethical rules in a world of artificial intelligence.
Robotics in Firefights
Imagine a war where soldiers are replaced with robots and no one gets killed. It sounds like a battlefield without blood and casualties. During the war in Iraq, the U.S. army adopted plenty of types of robots rather than putting soldiers’ lives at risk. Well-known unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), Predators were not only serving as watchers in the …show more content…

Army should be aware of the possible outcomes of the deployment of these “killer applications.” Second, decision makers should ask themselves whether there are any alternatives to avoid massive deaths of their soldiers besides using unmanned machines. Third, as a way of assessment, it is necessary to inform the users about the risks of being shot by some insubordinate automatons. Furthermore, in evaluating the safety of the procedure to operators and civilians, war program executives should also investigate the accidents caused by these uncontrollable autonomous

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