The debate over autonomous weapons and the debate over frontier AI safety are about different problems, argue experts @mchorowitz and @Lauren_A_Kahn. To regulate them, policymakers need a framework to address it, they write. “Everyone wants autonomy to be a clear binary, yes or no. . . . In reality, autonomy is a spectrum defined by the technology being used and the human choices that are made to employ a weapon system. The question isn't, ‘Is it autonomous?' but rather, ‘How autonomous is it?'” “What few people understand is how much autonomy is already in modern military systems—and has been for decades,” they write. Read their analysis: cfr.org/articles/the-autonom…

Critical to remember at this point that autonomy ≠ AI. Autonomous weapon systems are a subset of all weapon systems, and weapon systems using AI are a subset of those. An autonomous weapon may or may not use AI. AI is just one approach to how autonomy functions.

Ever wondered what the difference b/w killer robots, autonomous weapons systems, lethal autonomous weapon systems (LAWS), and AI-enabled weapons? In our latest visual explainer for @CFR_org @mchorowitz and I created a taxonomy to break it down. cfr.org/articles/the-autonom…

The war in Iran has shown that the age of “precise mass—or high-volume, low-cost, precision-guided weapons—is well underway,” writes @mchorowitz. foreignaffairs.com/iran/how-…

I was once very involved in programs like this at DOD. I had missed this stunning - mindblowing, really, unless you know the Army - statistic about the new service's new AI track:

A new era of warfare has begun—one in which “weaker states are no longer priced out of the military power game” and “stronger states are not guaranteed the upper hand in major battles,” writes @mchorowitz. foreignaffairs.com/iran/how-…