The Ethics and Regulation of Military Robotics

With the rapid rise of robotics technology and the benefits it brings, there are also multiple concerns that are beginning to emerge, from employment and economic concerns to even the consequences of a lack of human characteristics such as emotion and moral judgment. One major concern in the robotics field is their use in the military and the ethical implications, and it is crucial to determine what should and should not be legal since in this case, there are human lives at stake.

There are many benefits to using robotics in combat situations; a military squad using robots in active combat would have fewer human casualties whether the robots are autonomous or human-controlled since they could be controlled remotely from a secure location.

Robots are also less subject to error than humans, and simply don’t have the same moral qualms that human soldiers do (which could be considered a double-edged sword). Even with robots that are controlled remotely, those controlling the robots will be much more likely to engage the enemy and attack since they know that their own lives are not at stake. Furthermore, if the user interface for controlling the robots was designed to look like a simulation/computer game, it would be much easier to blur the line between the reality of the situation (that is, an actual war with actual human lives at stake) and…