The Use of Autonomous Weapons – fortunium dei?

Weapons were created to inflict damage, whether to property or to people. With the “help” of innovation and digitalisation, there has been a rapid increase in the development and promotion of autonomous weapons. Among other things, pictures and videos of people are used in order to feed the artificial intelligence with material and therefore let it process and develop itself further.

This paper describes the issues of using such weapons in connection with international humanitarian and human rights law. It is divided into four chapters, starting with the functioning and description of the actual weapon and autonomous weapons, and the types of such armament. Furthermore, the points of being in favour or against these systems will be dismantled in a detailed way within the scope of international human rights and humanitarian law, and philosophical standards, the latter in a brief way. Lastly, the conclusion will briefly summarise the results, suggestions for improvements and concerns in the future of using such weapons. Due to the specialisation on to what extent the use of autonomous weapon systems is permissible under human and international humanitarian law, this paper intentionally will not deal with liability and immunity by using them because it would go beyond the scope of this essay.

• Kandathil, Tom Augustine