Sometimes during quiet moments of thoughts or when I hear some news about how many young people are sent to fight battles they didn’t start, I’ve kinda thought about this prompt a few times than I expected to. But to be honest, If countries could use robots and AI to fight wars instead of human, it could be a good but terrifying thing.
Is it even possible?
Technically, we’re already halfway there as we do have Drones, surveillance systems, automated weapons existing in our world today. From my experience using AI, it can analyze data faster than humans, detect threats, and make decisions in seconds. Even if I don't want to, I have to admit the possibility of robots and AI taking over wars.
Right now, the question isn’t can we use them? but should we use them? I really hope it's a no. But then, there are the pros and cons that could come out of this that makes it a tempting offer to consider. Though the cons are huge, the pros are also huge for humanity. Let me just say I haven't decided yet but I'll share the pros and cons now.
The Good Side: Fewer human lives lost.
The biggest and most obvious advantage of robots and AI going for war is saving human lives. I imagine a child not growing up without a parent, a young person not being sent into danger because of politics he barely understand. If robots were on the battlefield instead of humans, fewer families would be broken by war.
On the other hand, robots and AI are inanimate things that don’t feel fear, trauma or lose of lives. Robots or AI won't come home with invisible wounds as human soldiers would have. From that angle, it does sounds like a humane solution to let these inanimate things go for the war. But this decision could become uncomfortable, how?
Wars are terrible partly because they hurt humans. Leaders hesitate (at least sometimes) because they know real people will die. But what happens when that fear disappears? What happens when fighting a war no longer means losing your own citizens? I can only imagine one thing... It become easier to start wars after wars.
I'm not a fan of video games but I imagined this... What if you never lose anything real in your video game, wouldn't you keep playing? You keep fighting and you don’t stop to ask if it’s even worth it. I fear that robots and AI could turn war into a casual thing, just machines fighting while humans watch from safety, no plans to end it.
That is scary, I mean, the risk of endless wars because I know AI doesn’t get tired, Robots don’t demand peace, they won't protest (they can't) and they can't refuse orders. Say two countries are using machines to fight, absolutely nothing could force them to stop. No emotional cost, fallen soldiers, or even pressure from grieving families.
There’s always another machine to send for wars, so Wars could drag on longer than ever. And what if AI makes the wrong decision? What if it misidentifies a threat? Or worse, what if someone hacks it? A mistake made by a human affects a few people. A mistake made by AI could affect thousands in seconds. Omo! I really do not want.
War isn’t just about weapons. It’s about power, fear, greed, history, and unresolved anger. Changing who fights doesn’t change why people fight. So what I think is, if technology can help protect lives, it shouldn’t be dismissed. But handing war over completely to robots and AI does feels like trading one tragedy for another. And I hope humans understand that commotion.
Image used is AI generated.