Robots and Respect: The Case For and Against Lethal Autonomous Robots

Rob Sparrow (Monash University)

There is increasing recognition within military circles — and the US military in particular— that the future of armed conflict is likely to include extensive deployment of robots designed to identify targets and destroy them without the direct oversight of a human operator. My aim in this paper is twofold. First, I will argue that the ethical case for allowing autonomous targeting, at least in specific restricted domains, is much stronger than critics have acknowledged. A proper understanding of the nature and force of this argument is essential to any adequate response to it. Second, I will attempt to uncover, explicate, and defend the intuitions that even in this context there would be something ethically problematic about such targeting.

Associate Professor Robert Sparrow is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow in the Philosophy Department, and an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Centre for Human Bioethics, at Monash University, where he works on ethical issues raised by new technologies. He is the author of numerous articles on topics as diverse as human enhancement, military robotics, artificial gametes, human cloning, male pregnancy, nanotechnology, and multiculturalism.