Decoding Geopolitics Podcast with Dominik Presl #89 Paul Scharre: The Real Life ‘Slaughterbots’: We're Building a Battlefield From Hell
Oct 25, 2025
In this insightful discussion, Paul Scharre, a leading expert on autonomous weapons from the Center for Naval Analyses, dives deep into the implications of machines making life-and-death decisions on the battlefield. He explores the current state of autonomous drones in Ukraine and the technical challenges they face. Scharre highlights the ethical risks associated with removing human oversight and warns about the potential escalation of conflict due to misinterpretations by autonomous systems. Prepare for a thought-provoking look at the future of warfare!
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What Counts As An Autonomous Weapon
- An autonomous weapon is a machine making a decision about whom to kill on the battlefield.
- The distinction blurs because autonomy is added incrementally across many functions of a weapon system.
Autonomy Mirrors Self-Driving Complexity
- Autonomy in weapons parallels self-driving cars: many incremental automation features add up to higher autonomy.
- Militaries break engagement into sensing, classification, targeting and weapons selection similar to driving sub-tasks.
Limited Automatic Systems Already Exist
- Some air and missile defense systems already operate fully automatically in defined modes.
- But broader battlefield autonomy—searching for and attacking targets unaided—is not yet fielded widely.
