ABSTRACT
In the case of autonomous weapons, the precursor technologies would include guided munitions, historical tele-operated platforms, advancements in computing technologies and commercial robotics. While AI has been referred to as another precursor technology, it is far more useful to think of AI as the key enabling invention underpinning the emergence of increasingly autonomous weapon systems. The ongoing international discussions at the UN convention on certain conventional weapons and the concept of the meaningful human control are aspects of the process of establishing a discourse around laws, which will then inform the creation of competing strategic doctrines. Historically, major military innovations have enabled rising states to challenge the hegemony of more powerful states, for the non-state actors to undermine the power of the state or, in the case of the automatic weapons, for states to impose hegemony over the foreign lands.
