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Military robots should not look like a humans

Kamil Mamak Orcid Logo, Kaja Kowalczewska Orcid Logo

Ethics and Information Technology, Volume: 25, Issue: 3

Swansea University Author: Kaja Kowalczewska Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.1007/s10676-023-09718-6

Abstract

Using robots in the military contexts is problematic at many levels. There are social, legal, and ethical issues that should be discussed first before their wider deployment. In this paper, we focus on an additional problem: their human likeness. We claim that military robots should not look like hu...

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Published in: Ethics and Information Technology
ISSN: 1388-1957 1572-8439
Published: Springer Science and Business Media LLC 2023
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa70676
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spelling 2025-12-04T15:06:16.2236706 v2 70676 2025-10-15 Military robots should not look like a humans 84967a6c58e00cfe9dc8ce044a9f6f9e 0000-0002-9799-9150 Kaja Kowalczewska Kaja Kowalczewska true false 2025-10-15 HRCL Using robots in the military contexts is problematic at many levels. There are social, legal, and ethical issues that should be discussed first before their wider deployment. In this paper, we focus on an additional problem: their human likeness. We claim that military robots should not look like humans. That design choice may bring additional risks that endanger human lives and by that contradicts the very justification for deploying robots at war, which is decreasing human deaths and injuries. We discuss two threats—epistemological and patient. Epistemological one is connected with the risk of mistaking robots for humans due to the limited ways of getting information about the external world, which may be amplified by the rush and need to fight with robots in distance. The patient threat is related to the developing attachment to robots, that in military contexts may cause additional deaths by the hesitance to sacrifice robots in order to save humans in peril or risking human life to save robots. Journal Article Ethics and Information Technology 25 3 Springer Science and Business Media LLC 1388-1957 1572-8439 Military robots; Design; Human–robot interactions; Antophomorpism 17 8 2023 2023-08-17 10.1007/s10676-023-09718-6 COLLEGE NANME Hillary Rodham Clinton Law School COLLEGE CODE HRCL Swansea University Another institution paid the OA fee 2025-12-04T15:06:16.2236706 2025-10-15T12:49:43.7236247 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Hilary Rodham Clinton School of Law Kamil Mamak 0000-0002-5081-792x 1 Kaja Kowalczewska 0000-0002-9799-9150 2 70676__35766__be7438f81e7e486faacaa414ea516f1c.pdf 70676.VoR.pdf 2025-12-04T14:53:15.2260134 Output 671391 application/pdf Version of Record true © The Author(s) 2023. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title Military robots should not look like a humans
spellingShingle Military robots should not look like a humans
Kaja Kowalczewska
title_short Military robots should not look like a humans
title_full Military robots should not look like a humans
title_fullStr Military robots should not look like a humans
title_full_unstemmed Military robots should not look like a humans
title_sort Military robots should not look like a humans
author_id_str_mv 84967a6c58e00cfe9dc8ce044a9f6f9e
author_id_fullname_str_mv 84967a6c58e00cfe9dc8ce044a9f6f9e_***_Kaja Kowalczewska
author Kaja Kowalczewska
author2 Kamil Mamak
Kaja Kowalczewska
format Journal article
container_title Ethics and Information Technology
container_volume 25
container_issue 3
publishDate 2023
institution Swansea University
issn 1388-1957
1572-8439
doi_str_mv 10.1007/s10676-023-09718-6
publisher Springer Science and Business Media LLC
college_str Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
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hierarchy_top_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
department_str Hilary Rodham Clinton School of Law{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences{{{_:::_}}}Hilary Rodham Clinton School of Law
document_store_str 1
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description Using robots in the military contexts is problematic at many levels. There are social, legal, and ethical issues that should be discussed first before their wider deployment. In this paper, we focus on an additional problem: their human likeness. We claim that military robots should not look like humans. That design choice may bring additional risks that endanger human lives and by that contradicts the very justification for deploying robots at war, which is decreasing human deaths and injuries. We discuss two threats—epistemological and patient. Epistemological one is connected with the risk of mistaking robots for humans due to the limited ways of getting information about the external world, which may be amplified by the rush and need to fight with robots in distance. The patient threat is related to the developing attachment to robots, that in military contexts may cause additional deaths by the hesitance to sacrifice robots in order to save humans in peril or risking human life to save robots.
published_date 2023-08-17T05:33:27Z
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score 11.096068

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