ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that, while a Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems (LAWS) demonstration point is not currently imminent, the development of its ‘hardware’ and ‘software’ components is already underway. It offers important insight into how major states are acting during the current incubation period, as well as how their participation would affect a future demonstration point. As dual-use technologies, advances in related enabling components are still relevant in outlining our progress towards a future demonstration point of LAWS. However, in addition to the fact that AI software requires task-specific data, military co-option of these technologies would require far more robustness and resistance to interference than is generally present in civilian-designed systems. LAWS are seen as a pathway for overtaking US military power in the Asia-Pacific region, an approach that has been called a ‘leapfrog strategy’ and reflects a view that the character of warfare is changing to an ‘intelligentized’ paradigm.
