Boeing’s submarine could be equipped with an AI Boeing

The US Navy is quietly developing armed robot submarines controlled by onboard artificial intelligence. The vessels could potentially kill without explicit human control.

The Office of Naval Research is carrying out the project, known as CLAWS, which it describes in budget documents as an autonomous undersea weapon system for clandestine use. CLAWS will “increase mission areas into kinetic effects”, say the documents – military-speak for destroying things.

In particular, CLAWS will equip robot submarines with sensors and algorithms to carry out complex missions on their own, such as evading anti-submarine …