AI Targeting, Ethics, and the Guns of August

https://www.democracynow.org/2026/3/18/ai_warfare

Everyone is talking about AI right now and unless you've had your head in the sand, you're aware of the discussions regarding the Pentagon's use of the technology and suspicions and claims that it was AI targeting that resulted in the hit on the girl's school in Minab, Iran. Over 175 were killed as a result and while Anthropic has protested and subsequently been blacklisted by the Pentagon, reports suggest that Palantir and other platforms still make use of Anthropic AI.

For years there were discussions about the ethics of robots in battle. Well, the use of AI has circumvented this debate and now computers are actively involved in targeting. The sheer speed of operations means the human element is minimal and unable to keep up.

I was struck by the utter moral bankruptcy of Craig Jones in the interview when he said something to the effect that these systems are operating at levels faster than the evolution of human cognition.

If he truly believes that we're simply evolved, then I fail to understand his moral concerns with regard to this type of warfare. Survival of the fittest demands that he who builds the best and fastest weapon deserves to win and if humanity is to become digitised (as it were), then what's the problem? Besides, the human beings (including the girls at the school) are just cells that are despite being blown apart, are still cells if now in a different form. The notion of personhood is a fiction - a mere name given to a phenomenon that emerges when certain cells are combined. There's nothing immoral about burning firewood and therefore (according to this logic) there can't really be anything immoral about burning people.

Additionally, if one is to explore utilitarian ethics and arguments, then again it's hard to protest against efficiency at the expense of human life. You could easily argue that it's in the West's interest or the global interest for the Iranian regime to fall and if that requires a certain number of deaths - then such deaths are acceptable. This evil calculus is fully embraced by utilitarian thinkers. It if of course godless and evil and we would be remiss to not point out that Trump, Hegseth, and Netanyahu also represent another type of godlessness and evil. But I'm afraid commentators like Jones just leave me baffled. I find him to be ridiculous, undercutting the very moral arguments he hopes to make.

There are real and valid concerns regarding AI but evolutionary paradigms have no cause or means to be critical.

As I watch this, it's hard not to think of the Guns of August and the chain-reaction that led to the start of World War I. It's not too hard to imagine some scenarios in which AI in connection to military targeting and response systems could lead to a chain reaction resulting in World War III.