When AI goes to war: youth opinion, fictional reality and autonomous weapons

This paper relates the results of deliberation of youth juries about the use of autonomous weapons systems (AWS). The discourse that emerged from the juries centered on several key issues. The jurors expressed the importance of keeping the humans in the decision-making process when it comes to militarizing artificial intelligence, and that only humans are capable of moral agency. They discussed the perennial issue of control over AWS and possibility of something going wrong, either with software or hardware. Concerns over proliferation of AWS and possible arms race also entered the discussion and the jurors were skeptical about the possibility of regulation and compliance once AWS enter military arsenals. We conclude that the juries were very apprehensive and hostile to the introduction of autonomous weapons systems into military conflicts.