The role of artificial intelligence technology in leveraging military changes cannot be underestimated. However, at the same time, a series of risks and challenges such as technology, ethics, and morality in war have gradually emerged. Autonomous killing machines like drones have been used in several wars in recent years. In some science fiction movies, there are also scenes like this: those automatic killing machines have no regard for human life at all, and they will kill people or destroy everywhere. As a result, many countries and regions have begun to establish relevant organizations. They believe that artificial intelligence will not destroy mankind, advocate that mankind prohibit the development, production and use of lethal autonomous weapon systems, and even advocate a complete ban on any robotic technology.

Note: Artificial intelligence imagination diagram (picture comes from the Internet)

However, for the military, such ethical dilemmas essentially do not exist. Because the military, as the country's violent machine, is a tool for people to achieve political goals. That being the case, "command and control" must exist in all aspects of the military. If the artificial intelligence that serves the military has capabilities that cannot be controlled, the military will lose its meaning.

Therefore, it is the need of the times to get out of the ethical dilemma of artificial intelligence and explore and develop artificial intelligence technology.

The first is to formulate development strategies. In the future, with the advancement of ultra-large-scale computing, quantum computing, cloud computing, big data and other technologies, artificial intelligence information processing and control technology will undergo great development, and the proportion of technology in modern warfare will increase significantly. Under such a general background, it is necessary to formulate artificial intelligence development plans and strategies in a timely manner, to see the development before it emerges and to recognize the development before it is developed.

The second is to ensure the absolute control of human beings. In the process of improving the ethical norms of artificial intelligence warfare, we should ensure that humans have control over intelligent weapons, incorporate human-machine relationships into the discussion dimension of war ethics, establish an independent ethical evaluation system for the special fields of artificial intelligence use and battlefield situations, prevent the mixing of human war ethics and the war ethics after the participation of artificial intelligence, and use technology, ethics and legal and other control methods in conjunction with each other and highly integrate them.

Note: Artificial intelligence application renderings (pictures come from the Internet)

The third is to strengthen international communication and cooperation. Countries should strengthen exchanges and communication on artificial intelligence technology and ethics, establish a long-term and effective dialogue mechanism, promote artificial intelligence-related research in accordance with existing international norms, strengthen artificial intelligence technology prediction and evaluation, and gradually promote the military application of artificial intelligence technology on the basis of sufficient testing and analysis.

Just as steam changed the world in the first industrial revolution, artificial intelligence is changing the world at a rapid speed. The future military system is not only a "material system", "energy system" and "information system", but also an "intelligent system" that integrates humans and machines. It should be pointed out that no matter how future wars evolve, people will still be the final decision-makers under the new model. Human warriors will enter and exit the combat chain independently as needed and take necessary intervention measures. How to ensure that humans can take over control at any time will be the biggest challenge facing the development of human-machine collaboration technology in the future.

Expert profile: Weng Zongbo is a military equipment science popularization expert. He is mainly engaged in research on domestic and foreign high-tech equipment, main battle equipment of various arms, joint operations strategies and tactics, etc. He has published more than 200 articles in military newspapers and magazines such as "People's Liberation Army Daily", "China National Defense News", "Weapons" magazine, etc., and he has been awarded third-class merit once.