DARPA’s Latest Creation
The Sea Hunter is the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) latest creation, in both warships and AI. With the length of 132ft it is by far the biggest autonomous ship made to date. The ship is powered by two diesel engines, with both engines working at once the ship can reach a speed of 27 knots. The Sea Hunter is currently being manned to make sure the ship can discerns between boats, warships and sail boats. The ship can also be boarded but according to Deputy U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Work the boat is uncontrollable as it has no steering wheel, or other types of controls. The differentiating factor of this ship is not its size or its power but the AI on the ship, an AI that can navigate the oceans for months without input.
This technology in a huge step towards autonomous military vehicles, that according to the U.S. Department of Defence will be used to track foreign submarines, and will need two more years of testing to be used in the future. To Robert Work this seems to be an obvious check on his list to autonomously survey air, land and sea spaces. Work then left the unveiling saying that there was no reason to be scared of such a ship. The Sea Hunter is the newest addition of several autonomous military vehicles. The Sea Hunter also boast one of the most developed SpatialTemporal reasoning of any AI known to date.
Although the Sea Hunter does not carry weapons, it begs the question of whether or not we should be able to use autonomous weapons to kill people.
The Sea hunter currently seems to be made only for surveillance purposes like several aerial drones, and I agree surveillance is an integral part of a nation and necessary to protect a nation. Yet the United States has not yet seemed to have drawn a line to how they are going to use Sea Hunter. As the world moves forward with these new technologies and AI, many U.S. states are still trying to define what an autonomous vehicle is.
Although the Sea Hunter does not carry weapons, it begs the question of whether or not we should be able to use autonomous weapons to kill people. Work has even mentioned how weapons could easily be added to the vehicle. According to Work if the U.S. was going to use weapons on the Sea Hunter any lethal decision would be made by humans. Although he says that this will be the case, most decisions to deliver a lethal blow are made in the moment, and although the US may abide by these rules will other nations abide by them?
After the initial technology is developed it is soon to be developed in other nations, and why would the U.S. pass the decision through a human if you are uncertain if another ship is AI or manned? Strategically, it doesn’t seem feasible to pass the decision through a human in a time of war because of the lag between sending the message to a human then sending the message back, when they could have just delivered the lethal blow. Although AI will definitely be implemented to the Military sooner or later, the United States as a front runner should take its time to set the ground rules for what is fair game.