2007 ushered in a new era in warfare as armed robots were first deployed on the battlefield. The SWORDS robots are manned remotely by soldiers, and do not make tactical decisions on their own, so I wonder if this is any different than remotely controlled Predator drones, which have been used for years.

Naturally, the use of any new technology in the battlefield raises ethical issues, and in this case some people are concerned with the issue of responsibility when a remotely controlled robot takes a life. I would argue that it is the soldier controlling that robot. However, in the future we might see thornier issues as robots are given more independent control over their responses to threats. If an algorithm decides to take a fatal shot without human input, who is to blame then if the robot kills a friendly target or civilian due to programming error?

It still remains to be seen if robots are even an effective or reliable tool in ground combat.