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Right now, militaries around the globe are investing heavily in the use of AI weapons and drones. From Ukraine to Gaza, weapons systems with increasing levels of autonomy are being used to kill people and destroy infrastructure and the development of fully autonomous weapons shows little signs of slowing down. What does this mean for the future of warfare? What safeguards can we put up around these systems? And is this runaway trend toward autonomous warfare inevitable or will nations come together and choose a different path? In this episode, Tristan and Daniel sit down with Paul Scharre to try to answer some of these questions. Paul is a former Army Ranger, the author of two books on autonomous weapons and he helped the Department of Defense write a lot of its policy on the use of AI in weaponry.
Paul Scharre is the Executive Vice President and Director of Studies at the Center for a New American Security. He is the author of Four Battlegrounds: Power in the Age of Artificial Intelligence and Army of None: Autonomous Weapons and the Future of War. Scharre previously worked in the Office of the Secretary of Defense where he played a leading role in establishing policies on unmanned and autonomous systems and emerging weapons technologies. He led the Department of Defense working group that drafted the department’s policies on autonomy in weapon systems. Prior to that, Scharre served as a special operations reconnaissance team leader in the Army’s 3rd Ranger Battalion and completed multiple tours to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Paul’s book on the future of AI in war, which came out in 2023.
Paul’s 2018 book documenting and predicting the rise of autonomous and semi-autonomous weapons as part of modern warfare.
Paul’s article in Foreign Affairs based on his recent trip to the battlefield in Ukraine.
A BBC documentary about Stanislav Petrov’s decision not to start nuclear war.
The full simulated dogfight between an AI and human pilot. The AI pilot swept, 5-0.
An investigation into the use of AI targeting systems by the IDF.
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