text: LETHAL AUTONOMOUS WEAPONS: The Congressional Research Service outlined their findings on the international stance on lethal autonomous weapon systems (LAWS). LAWS are tied directly with artificial intelligence (AI) advancements due the potential impacts it can make on the battlefield, and AI-enabled LAWS could enable military operations in communications-degraded or denied environments where traditional systems would not be effective. There is no consensus definition of LAWS among the international community which leads to debates on what current military systems should be labeled as LAWS. The United States and Russia have opposed any preemptive bans on LAWs, and China supports the ban on use but not the development of LAWS. (AC: Strategic competitor nations continue to develop advantages that will increase the speed of war if a conflict were to occur. Currently, debates within governments surrounding AI integration in decision-making and execution of commands wrestle around keeping a human on, in, or out of the AI decision-making loop. The speed of automation is a competitive edge, however, determining how much autonomy an AI has with critical systems, such as targeting and attack, will have impacts to the outcome of a future conflict. –