Topic:
Country: Japan
Delegate Name: Hunter Sturm
Country: Japan
Committee: DISEC
Topic: Autonomous Weapon Systems
Delegate: Hunter Sturm
School: Williamston High School
The issue of Autonomous Weapon Systems impacts the whole world, not just Japan. Lethal autonomous weapons (more commonly referred to as LAWS) are military assets that are employed by countries throughout the world. Within this broad scope of LAWS, there exist 3 main types; human-in-the-loop, human-on-the-loop, and human-out-of-the-loop. Human-in-the-loop LAWS seek out and employ force on a target, but only with a human command. Human-on-the-loop LAWS select targets and deliver force on a target with the oversight of a human operator who can override the weapon’s actions at any time. Human-out-of-the-loop LAWS are the most troubling, as they select targets and execute force with no human interaction or input required. At this current point Human-out-of-the-loop weapons do not exist, but could feasibly exist soon with the serious advancements of AI overall.
Japan has a strong opinion against LAWS, and is trying hard to prohibit the use and development of them. The country of Japan highly favors some of the components and methods used in the development and implementation/creation of LAWS, but would prefer to use them for peaceful and civilian purposes. They are also working to foster more cooperation between countries in the Asian and Pacific regions to negotiate new treaties on the issue before it spreads too much out of control. They have even created a Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, which is trying to spread out more and more in the region.
In the future Japan has many ideas and plans to regulate and prevent the spread of LAWS, which they prefer describing as killer robots. While partially implemented already, the primary goal is to completely prevent the spread of LAWS. While the technology behind them is good, it is the actual purposes of them that worries Japan. They hope to sway the opinions of their citizens towards this view, and are also attempting to highlight this issue in other countries within this geographical area. If the technology is regulated it can very well be put to helpful uses, and can benefit many people. If there can be strict regulations and control of the idea of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robots, Japan believes it can be a good thing, rather than a tool of destruction.
