On this Memorial Day, we commemorate all those men and women who have given their lives in defending our nation. For some, advanced technology, such as artificial intelligence (AI), is the way to eliminate deaths of our military forces in wartime. Granted, replacing humans during war is no longer the purview of science fiction.
For sure, any comparison of humans versus machines reveals stark differences in makeup. Humans are fallible, but machines are assumed to be perfect. Humans are blessed and inhibited by emotion, whereas machines only practice logic.
Men and women are willing to sacrifice themselves for others, but machines are not normally designed to self-destruct.
With humans, there are leaders and followers, but machines are soulless and on their own once given directions. Those in the military practice patriotism, whereas AI has no affiliation or allegiance. For humans, there is pride in victory and guilt in committing war crimes, but machines cannot reflect on themselves.
One example of machines ostensibly replacing soldiers is the extensive use of drones used to deliver missiles and other deadly payloads. This technology has been used in tracking and taking out terrorists for two decades. Certainly, this means of warfare has saved American lives. But behind the drone strikes is a human programmer. An April 2022 article in The New York Times highlighted drone sensor operators in the Air Force and noted the stress of such work and the emotional scars left from killing people from afar.
Another instance of AI’s impact on the U.S. military comes from a March 2022 article in The Washington Post. The article focused on the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the innovative division of the military.
Said agency is working on a program called In the Moment, in which quick decisions can be made by machines on the battlefield. However, critics assert that AI cannot make value decisions and that it is possible for this technology to still exhibit bias.
Then, there is the specter of AI out of control, such as the scenario depicted in the 1983 film, “War Games.” In the movie, a teen hacks into the Defense Department’s computers. Eventually, the computers react to projected attacks by selecting the most extreme alternative, employing nuclear weapons. While there is no guarantee that humans would never go that far, the likelihood is remote.
At the end of the 1970 movie, “Patton,” the famous World War II general is asked to comment on Germany’s planned utilization of “wonder weapons,” which would not need soldiers. The general answers that he is glad he won’t live to see that transpire because there would be no heroes, no cowards and no generals, only those left alive and dead.
Regardless of military service area, machines are advancing how war is planned and fought. But they will never completely replace the human element. While we yearn for a planet in which war is an anathema, we nonetheless recognize that conflict is persistently present in many parts of the world. We can certainly take actions which minimize its probability, though as long as human beings inhabit Earth, there are bound to be miscalculations and mistakes which can cause combat.
What is perpetual is that which cannot be programmed into hardware: the willingness to shield others from a grenade or to rush a machine gun or to rescue others at the cost of one’s own life. For that, and for all whose military service has ended on the field of battle or from wounds inflicted thereon, we give thanks that can only come from human hearts.
Dr. Samuel B. Hoff is a George Washington Distinguished Professor Emeritus of history and political science at Delaware State University. He served as DSU’s ROTC director from 1993-99 and is a past recipient of a military history fellowship from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
