The United States Defense Department is going to spend to $2 billion artificial intelligence (AI) weapons the next five years. This will be the most the department has ever spent AI systems for weapons. The department wants to have the most advanced weapons the world. It wants its weapons to be better than those China and Russia. Defense bosses want future weapons to be trusted and accepted military generals and commanders. They want to make sure weapons the future do not make mistakes. Department official John Everett said: "We think it's a good time to seed the field AI. We think we can accelerate two decades of progress five years."
Some the new AI weapons may be able to make and act their own decisions. This means computer systems and algorithms could make a decision ( any human decision-making) to attack a target that could kill people. Many people think this is dangerous and could lead to innocent lives being lost. The Defense Department said AI technology could, "make it possible to develop and [use] autonomous systems that could independently select and attack targets [deadly] force". It added that weapons using AI systems can currently choose targets their own, but military commanders do not want to let the weapons decide the targets to attack. The commanders want to make the final decision.
