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This week's briefing in The Economist is my piece on autonomous weapons. economist.com/briefing/2019/… A thread below on some of the writing & research that I found most useful in learning about the subject.
First of all, Paul Scharre's book, 'Army of None', was a superb overview of the issues. Particularly excellent chapters on the long history of autonomy in weapons, the difficulty of safety in complex and tightly-coupled systems, & neural network spoofing amazon.co.uk/Army-None-Auto…
Heather Roff and Richard Moyes on how to think about "meaningful human control" over autonomous weapons bit.ly/20sYNiB And Roff on "tangled loops" between interacting autonomous weapons bit.ly/2sDEWEa
Very detailed paper by SIPRI mapping the progress of autonomy in weapon systems, with lots of discussion on their limitations: sipri.org/sites/default/… 
Another excellent paper by SIPRI, looking at 'Article 36' reviews (which assess the legality of new weapons or methods of war) and how they apply to autonomous weapons (as well as to cyberwarfare & human enhancement technologies) sipri.org/sites/default/…
The ICRC's paper on ethics and autonomous weapons. It calls for "a sufficiently direct and close connection to be maintained between the human intent of the user and the eventual consequences of the operation of the weapon system in a specific attack." icrc.org/en/download/fi…
HRW's report on ethical and legal issues around autonomous weapons. "Even if they could comply with legal rules of protection, they would not have the capacity to respect human dignity." hrw.org/report/2018/08…
The report of the "Group of Governmental Experts" on autonomous weapons at the UN's CCW, from last August. It captures the unfolding debate(s) amongst different states and civil society groups on defining, let alone regulating, such weapons: unog.ch/80256EDD006B89…
The papers submitted to that CCW group reflect the variety of views around autonomous weapons: unog.ch/__80256ee60058… Britain's paper is a thoughtful & detailed discussion, from the perspective of a state which thinks existing international law suffices: unog.ch/80256EDD006B89…
Mike Horowitz on public opinion towards autonomous weapons. "Public opposition to autonomous weapons is contextual. Fear of other countries or non-state actors developing these weapons makes the public significantly more supportive of developing them" researchgate.net/publication/29…
An explanation of the US/UK opposition to a ban on autonomous weapons: lawfareblog.com/too-early-ban-…
Ulrike Franke on 'flash wars': ecfr.eu/article/Flash_…
On China's "strategic ambiguity" around autonomous weapons: lawfareblog.com/chinas-strateg…
