The Pentagon writes down what an autonomous weapon is
On 21 November 2012 Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter issued Directive 3000.09. It defined an autonomous weapon system and required such systems to be designed so that commanders and operators could exercise appropriate levels of human judgment over the use of force.
Why it matters
For the first time a state wrote the limit of machine autonomy in killing not as an ethical proposition but as a duty with an approval procedure attached. Every later declaration, resolution and corporate policy argues with wording that first appeared here.
The definition: "a weapon system that, once activated, can select and engage targets without further intervention by a human operator." A semi-autonomous system, by contrast, "only engage[s] individual targets or specific target groups that have been selected by a human operator." The central requirement: "Autonomous and semi-autonomous weapon systems shall be designed to allow commanders and operators to exercise appropriate levels of human judgment over the use of force." Systems meant to be used outside the directive’s exemptions had to be approved by the Under Secretary for Policy, the Under Secretary for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, before formal development and again before fielding. Those three could ask the Deputy Secretary for a waiver "in cases of urgent military operational need", though not from the legal review. Change 1 of 8 May 2017 left the requirements and the effective date as they were. On 25 January 2023 Deputy Secretary Kathleen Hicks reissued the directive: approval before development now goes to the Under Secretaries for Policy and for Research and Engineering and the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, before fielding to Policy, Acquisition and Sustainment and the Vice Chairman, and the waiver reads "in cases of urgent military need". Human Rights Watch lists the other changes: references to "control" dropped from the requirements, "shall" replaced by "will", and "ensure" replaced by "provide sufficient confidence".