Minotaur Warfare feat. Robert Sparrow
Robert Sparrow is a philosophical pioneer in the field of autonomous weapons. We discuss the current debate and the development since his famous articles "Killer Robots" and "Robots and Respect" were published. We explore the notion of male in se - evil in itself, and Rob presents his idea of Minotaur Warfighting or AI commanders.
Rob also gives his perspectives on the black box, meaningful human control, programming ethics into machines and the value of fundamental human respect and recognition in war.
Shownotes:
Producer and host: Sune With, [email protected]
Cover art: Sebastian Gram
- Dige, Morten, 2012, ”EXPLAINING THE PRINCIPLE OF MALA IN SE”, Journal of Military Ethics, 11:4, 318-332
- Orend, Brian, 2016, "War", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2016
Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.)
https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2016/entries/war/ - 2.2
- Scharre, Paul, 2016, ”Centaur warfighting: the false choice of humans vs. Automation”. Temp. Int'l & Comp. LJ, 30, 151-165.
- Scharre, Paul, 2018, ”Army of none: Autonomous weapons and the future of war”. WW Norton & Company.
SHAPE, 2025, ”NATO ACQUIRES AI-ENABLED WARFIGHTING SYSTEM”, NATO (Accessed April 14, 2025).
https://shape.nato.int/news-releases/nato-acquires-aienabled-warfighting-system-
- Sparrow, Robert, 2016, ”Robots and Respect: Assessing the Case Against Autonomous Weapon Systems”, Ethics & International Affairs, 30, no. 1 (2016), pp. 93-116.
- Sparrow, Robert, 2007, ”Killer Robots”, Journal of Applied Philosophy, Vol. 24, No. 1, pp. 62-77.
- Sparrow, Robert, 2021. ”Why machines cannot be moral” AI & Society: Journal of Knowledge, Culture and Communication.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-020-01132-6.
- Sparrow, Robert; Henschke, Adam, 2023, ”Minotaurs, Not Centaurs: The Future of Manned-Unmanned”, Parameters 53 (1), The Us Army War College Quarterly, pp. 115-130.
- Sparrow, Robert, 2012 "ONE, Riskless Warfare Revisited: Drones, Asymmetry and the Just Use of Force". Ethics of Drone Strikes: Restraining Remote-Control Killing, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp. 10-30.
https://doi.org/10.1515/9781474483599-004
- Strawser, Bradley (edi), 2013, ”Killing by remote control -The Ethics of an Unmanned, Military”, Oxford University press.
- TERMA, 2025, ”Multi-Domain”, (Accessed April 14. 2025)
https://www.terma.com/products/multi-domain/
Music: Sofus Forsberg
Death by Algorithm
A series on autonomous weapons systems, drones and AI in the military domain. Experts from various disciplines share their research and discuss the black box, responsibility, human-machine interaction, and the future of legal and ethical frameworks for AI in war. How is war regulated? Can the ethics of war be programmed into machines? Does it change how we fight? Can war be cleaned up by technology? How can soldiers understand the systems? Will AI systems be the commanders of tomorrow? Why not just let the robots fight? Episodes are narration and interviews and not chronological
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