"What happens when a Predator drone has as much autonomy as a Google car? Although it sounds like science fiction, the technology to create weapons that could hunt and destroy targets on their own already exists. Paul Scharre, a leading expert in emerging weapons technologies, draws on incisive research and firsthand experience to explore how increasingly autonomous weapons are changing warfare. This far-ranging investigation examines the emergence of fully autonomous weapons, the movement to ban them, and the legal and ethical issues surrounding their use. Scharre spotlights the role of artificial intelligence in military technology, spanning decades of innovation from German noise-seeking Wren torpedoes in World War II (antecedents of today's armed drones) to autonomous cyber weapons. At the forefront of a game-changing debate, Army of None engages military history, global policy, and bleeding-edge science to explore what it would mean to give machines authority over the ultimate decision: life or death"--Publisher's website.

Introduction: The power over life and death -- PART I: ROBOCALYPSE NOW. The coming swarm : the military robotics revolution ; The Terminator and the Roomba : what is autonomy? ; Machines that kill : what is an autonomous weapon? -- PART II: BUILDING THE TERMINATOR. The future being built today : autonomous missiles, drones, and robot swarms ; Inside the puzzle palace : is the Pentagon building autonomous weapons? ; Crossing the threshold : approving autonomous weapons ; World War R : robotic weapons around the world ; Garage bots : DIY killer robots -- PART III: RUNAWAY GUN. Robots run amok : failure in autonomous systems ; Command and decision : can autonomous weapons be used safely? ; Black box : the weird, alien world of deep neural networks ; Failing deadly : the risk of autonomous weapons -- PART IV: FLASH WAR. Bot vs. bot : an arms race in speed ; The invisible war : autonomy in cyberspace ; "Summoning the demon" : the rise of intelligent machines -- PART V: THE FIGHT TO BAN AUTONOMOUS WEAPONS. Robots on trial : autonomous weapons and the laws of war ; Soulless killers : the morality of autonomous weapons ; Playing with fire : autonomous weapons and stability -- PART VI: AVERTING ARMAGEDDON : THE WEAPON OF POLICY. Centaur warfighters : humans + machines ; The pope and the crossbow : the mixed history of arms control ; Are autonomous weapons inevitable? : the search for lethal laws of robotics -- Conclusion: No fate but what we make.