'The AI that we've got in the Department of Defense right now is heavily leveraged and augments people,' said Missy Cummings, director of George Mason University's robotics center and a former Navy fighter pilot.' 'There's no AI running around on its own. That's especially true if, as expected, lethal weapons are deployed en masse in drone swarms. Many countries are working on them - and neither China, Russia, Iran, India or Pakistan have signed a U.S.-initiated pledge to use military AI responsibly.

And though officials insist humans will always be in control, experts say advances in data-processing speed and machine-to-machine communications will inevitably relegate people to supervisory roles.

will within the next few years have fully autonomous lethal weapons. There is little dispute among scientists, industry experts and Pentagon officials that the U.S.

While its funding is uncertain and details vague, Replicator is expected to accelerate hard decisions on what AI tech is mature and trustworthy enough to deploy - including on weaponized systems. military innovation to leverage platforms that are small, smart, cheap, and many,' Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks said in August. The ambitious initiative - dubbed Replicator - seeks to 'galvanize progress in the too-slow shift of U.S. Now, the Pentagon is intent on fielding multiple thousands of relatively inexpensive, expendable AI-enabled autonomous vehicles by 2026 to keep pace with China.

It tracks soldiers' fitness, predicts when Air Force planes need maintenance and helps keep tabs on rivals in space. military has piloted pint-sized surveillance drones in special operations forces' missions and helped Ukraine in its war against Russia. Artificial intelligence employed by the U.S. research toward lethal autonomous weapons 02:32

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