The USA will spend up to $2 billion on artificial intelligence (AI) weapons in the next five years. This is the most it has ever spent on AI systems for weapons. The Department of Defense wants the most advanced weapons in the world. It wants better weapons than China's and Russia's. Defense bosses want weapons generals and commanders can trust and accept. These weapons must not make mistakes. A Department of Defense official said: "We think it's a good time to seed the field of AI. We think we can accelerate two decades of progress into five years."
Some of the new weapons could make their own decisions. This means their computer systems could make a decision without any humans helping. Many people think this is dangerous and could lead to innocent lives being lost. The Defense Department said these computer systems could, "independently select and attack targets with [deadly] force". It added that weapons using AI can now choose targets on their own. Military commanders do not want to let the weapons decide on the targets to attack. The commanders want to make those decisions.