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This is an open access book. This volume critically examines challenges in the field of current and future military technology from a transdisciplinary lens. It helps objectify the debate around the development of Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems (LAWS). The volume offers a differentiated, informed and open approach to military artificial intelligence (AI) applications in the public realm, in politics and in the military itself. The contributions weigh the risks that artificially intelligent automation, like any new technology, brings, against technological innovation and progress. They address the issues of testing new technologies, implementing them socially and reflecting on their use, along with questions of unintended consequences of such technologies. The volume is divided into three parts. The first discusses perspectives on AI; how AI systems are understood by the public, by soldiers, and in cultural discourses. The focus is on (but not limited to) military applications. The second part focuses on the challenges and changes posed by the use of AI in military conflicts and addresses issues of how to deal with them. The third part examines the communication challenges posed by the implementation of AI in the military and the associated opportunities and risks.
This highly topical and timely volume is for researchers and students across disciplines who have an interest in military technology and those interested in AI and new technology.
List of contents
Introduction-. Part I The Robot Understanding.- Fear for the Robots Cultural Perspectives about the Fear for Technology.- Humanism or Transhumanism Critique of transhumanism.- Military Robots in Science Fiction.- Overview of the international policy perspective on AI in the military.- What do the soldiers think A small country perspective.- Part 2 AI and Military Conflict Human factor and military technology in warfare a historical perspective.- Control the AIs An engineering perspective.- AI in the Military from the Perspective of the Innere Führung.- Autonomous Weapons Systems A Review of Legal and Ethical Issues.- Overview on the systems theory approach to war and violent conflicts.- The impact of cultural factors on trust technology in the case of strategic decision making.- Challenges of communicating military innovation.- Hybrid Warfare and Defence of Discourse De legitimization of the western political system.- Autonomy and communication the FCAS process.- Cognitive warfare and Bourdieu s theory doxa and illusio marching into cognitive battle.- Exploring and controlling the AI A Human Factors and Human Systems Integration Approach.
About the author
Kairi Talves is Scientific Adviser in the Estonian Ministry of Defence and Visiting Researcher at the Estonian Military Academy. She has a PhD in Sociology from the University of Tartu. Her main research interests cover the different aspects of technology in society: societal development and change (e.g., technological developments) and their social impact, people’s attitudes and coping in the context of rapid societal changes, public acceptance of technology and technology in the military: risks, trust, acceptance, ethical aspects, challenges of human-machine interaction, cognitive warfare, innovation of military organizations, technology, and states’ power balance. She has published a number of research papers in international journals and chapters in edited volumes. She has received the Global Digital Governance Fellowship at Stanford University for Estonian Scholars, from February–May 2024. This fellowship is related to the research about the role of technology in strengthening national security and resilience in small countries
Dierk Spreen is a sociologist. He did his doctorate at the University of Freiburg in 1998 and habilitated at the University of Paderborn in 2006 with a thesis on war and society. He is currently a visiting professor for social sciences at the Berlin School for Economics and Law (HWR), Senior Project Manager at the Institute for Organizational Communication at University of the Bundeswehr in Munich and lecturer for "Communication" in Human-Technology-Interaction at the Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences (h2). Before that, he headed an online platform for science communication of the Helmholtz Association. From 2022 to 2024 he was a Visiting Researcher at the Estonian Military Academy (EMA) in Tartu. His main areas of interest are human-technology integration, artificial intelligence, transhumanism, space travel, sociology of the military, strategic communication and political economy.
Summary
This is an open access book. This volume critically examines challenges in the field of current and future military technology from a transdisciplinary lens. It helps objectify the debate around the development of Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems (LAWS). The volume offers a differentiated, informed and open approach to military artificial intelligence (AI) applications in the public realm, in politics and in the military itself. The contributions weigh the risks that artificially intelligent automation, like any new technology, brings, against technological innovation and progress. They address the issues of testing new technologies, implementing them socially and reflecting on their use, along with questions of unintended consequences of such technologies. The volume is divided into three parts. The first discusses perspectives on AI; how AI systems are understood by the public, by soldiers, and in cultural discourses. The focus is on (but not limited to) military applications. The second part focuses on the challenges and changes posed by the use of AI in military conflicts and addresses issues of how to deal with them. The third part examines the communication challenges posed by the implementation of AI in the military and the associated opportunities and risks.
This highly topical and timely volume is for researchers and students across disciplines who have an interest in military technology and those interested in AI and new technology.
