The AI Commander: Centaur Teaming, Command, and Ethical Dilemmas

The AI Commander examines the ethical, moral, and normative implications of integrating machines into the war machine, exploring the potential for AI-enabled autonomous weapons to make strategic decisions in place of humans. It argues that AI cannot be a passive force multiplier and will likely become strategic actors in war, transforming the role and nature of human warfare.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 240 pages
Publication date: 11 January 2024
Publisher: Oxford University Press

The AI Commander delves into the largely overlooked issue of how integrating machines into the war machine will impact the human condition of warfare. James Johnson highlights the mind, encompassing both human and machine, and the mechanisms of thought, including intelligence, consciousness, emotion, memory, and experience, to examine the effects of AI and autonomy on the human experience of war. Johnson explores the complex and often misunderstood ethical, moral, and normative implications of synthesizing man and machine in future algorithmic warfare, also known as AI-enabled centaur warfighting. At the core of these perplexing questions lie whether we are inevitably heading towards a scenario where AI-enabled autonomous weapons will take strategic decisions instead of humans, thus assuming ownership of those decisions.

Furthermore, the critical question arises whether AI-powered systems can replace human commanders and, more importantly, whether they should. The AI Commander contends that AI cannot solely serve as passive and neutral force multipliers of human cognition. Instead, it is likely to evolve into strategic actors in war, either through conscious choice or inadvertently. While AI will undoubtedly transform the role and nature of human warfare, the outcomes may not align with the prevailing expectations of observers.

Weight: 508g
Dimension: 240 x 160 x 20 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780198892182