Artificial intelligence enabled military platforms can expand U.S. war-fighting capabilities and remove the need for human personnel to conduct certain operations. That makes them a must-have for the 21st century Pentagon.

Others disagree. As the BBC notes, at a conference in Washington, D.C. last week, 89 scientific, technology, and activist groups again called for banning AI, or robotic, weapons. Under the umbrella “Ban Killer Robots” alliance, these groups are concerned that AI weapons threaten ethical violations and new conflicts. On the alliance’s website they argue that, “Replacing troops with machines could make the decision to go to war easier and shift the burden of conflict even further on to civilians. Fully autonomous weapons would make tragic mistakes with unanticipated consequences that could inflame tensions.”