The Ethical Considerations of Patenting Autonomous Weapons

By Thomas P. Gushue Every aspect of day-to-day life is increasingly influenced by artificial intelligence and automation. Mundane household tasks such as setting the temperature on thermostats, brewing a pot of coffee to coincide with our morning routines, and other simple chores can now be performed by automation. (Google’s U.S. Patent 9,513,642: “Flexible functionality partitioning within intelligent-thermostat-controlled HVAC systems” and General Electric’s U.S. Patent 4,330,702: “Electronic control system for coffeemaker”). Recently, more complex and consequential tasks associated with our vehicles, such as parallel parking, steering, or fully self-driving modes, are done autonomously by a series of computers. (Ford’s U.S. Patent 8,169,341 “Vehicle park assist system and method for parking a vehicle using such system”; Honda’s U.S. Patent 6,212,453 “Vehicle steering control system”; and Uber’s…

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