On a bright fall day last year off the coast of Southern California, an Air Force B-1 bomber launched an experimental missile that may herald the future of warfare.

Initially, pilots aboard the plane directed the missile, but halfway to its destination, it severed communication with its operators. Alone, without human oversight, the missile decided which of three ships to attack, dropping to just above the sea surface and striking a 260-foot unmanned freighter.

Warfare is increasingly guided by software. Today, armed drones can be operated by remote pilots peering into video screens thousands of miles from the battlefield. But now, some scientists say, arms makers have crossed into troubling territory: They are developing weapons that rely on artificial intelligence, not human instruction, to decide what to target and whom to kill. (1)

The fate of the world is decided.
Intelligence has made that certain.
It may look like lifeless machines wandering around.
But there is brain in these machines.
Somewhere, someday, someone programmed them.
What seems random, it is not.
The ghost of the designers still lingers.
Whether in an automatic bomb,
or a cruise missile,
the will of consciousness perpetrates everything…