The point here is not to argue whether to keep the kill chain firmly in human hands or to turn it over, in part or in whole, to machines. Rather, the point is that the current debate over the role of intelligent machines in war—one of the most serious ethical questions raised by emerging technologies—too often focuses on the wrong things. We seem overly concerned with means rather than ends, actors rather than actions, “killer robots” rather than effective kill chains. Ironically, even our ethical debates about military technology seem overly focused on platforms.
