As a kid raised in the 1990s in Poland, I especially looked forward to Sunday afternoon. Limited access to the media made the hunt for 1 peculiar program turn into a weekly ritual. In my home it was watching Star Trek. To clarify: it is simply a discipline fiction series about the adventures of Starfleet (United Federation of Planets), which in a somewhat utopian future of humanity traverses the galaxy to research unknown and connect with fresh life forms. The adventures of Captain Janeway, Picard and their crews have been carved in my memory, shaping my attitude towards discipline and technology.
It seemed to me that during my life I would not see any of the futuristic technologies of the Enterprise or Voyager (names of ships): replicators, i.e. on-board substance printers, which can make a cup of coffee or a key to the engine, or transporters, devices dematerializing people at quantum level, which transmit the obtained energy beam and rematerialize people at the mark location.
Meanwhile, the most rapidly realized component of the trekka star imagination of the future proved to be autonomous weapon systems – the Independent Weapon Systems (AWS).
From discipline fiction to reality
There is no single definition of this weapon, but it can be concluded that it is simply a general category of weaponry which uses different degrees of autonomy. It operates within programmed parameters and can execute tasks supporting operators on its own – e.g. reconnaissance or patrol. It is besides utilized for combat tasks – without continuous human control, it is guided by algorithms enabling decision-making based on environmental analysis.
After activation, these systems are based on sensor data software (e.g. cameras, radar signals, thermal signatures) to identify the target.
When the strategy finds the target, fires or releases the charge, frequently without approval or verification by the human operator.
In practice, this means that it is simply a machine, not a man, which determines where, erstwhile and with what force the weapon will be used.
Terms specified as "slaughterbots" and "killer robots" frequently associate with discipline fiction films specified as "Terminator", which creates a misconception that AWS belong to a distant future. The UN Expert Panel study on Libya of 2021 concluded that AWS, specified as the STM Kargu-2 drone and another unmanned kamikazes with circular ammunition, were programmed to attack targets without requiring data communication between the operator and the weapon – as a result, achieving the actual capability of "fire, Forget, and Find", i.e. "fire, forget and find". This means that the strategy made its own decision to choose and engage targets after first launch, without further human intervention.
In 2025 we observe the accelerated pace of improvement and implementation of AWS, both in the context of the usage of combat and advanced improvement and approval for production.
According to reports from The Guardian in early June 2025, Ukrainian soldiers launched Gogol-M, a flying "drone-mother". The device flew 200 km deep into Russia and fired 2 smaller impact drones. These smaller drones autonomously scanned the area in search of a suitable target, targeted it, and then flew into it, detonating their explosive on impact. Human participation was limited to teaching a drone the kind of mark and general search area. The cost of this mission was $10,000, while earlier it would require rocket systems costing between $3 and $5 million.
The Russian version of the Ukrainian Gogol-M drone, V2U, is launched even 50 times a day to hit targets close the front line in Ukraine.
Like its Ukrainian original, V2U is able to enter the designated area, utilizing only visual navigation and then detect, choice and attack objects without communication with the operator. It was besides observed that these drones operate in swarms and disrupting them is ineffective.
There is besides a change of communicative in Silicon Valley. After years in which the work on military applications of artificial intelligence has been stigmatized, it is now becoming permitted for AI engineers to engage in military projects.
The increasing expenditure on defence and technology improvement referred to in the European but besides Polish defence strategy should go hand in hand with a rigorous legal and ethical framework to prevent the erosion of human rights supported by the AI. Especially since it's not just about utilizing AWS on the battlefield. As is usually the case with specified systems, they have the character of "dual use" — both in war and border control, public order maintenance, or mass supervision.
Biometrics - especially facial designation - already present creates a freezing effect: people are afraid to participate in protests, knowing that cameras can identify them and the power will respond to them with repression.
Similar systems work in occupied areas, where drones and permanent checkpoints cut off full communities from wellness care, work, or household life.
Development of AWS requires immense data collections, most frequently collected without the cognition and consent of citizens.
Data from social media and monitoring go to databases forever, and those afraid lose the chance to object. specified practices violate not only the right to privacy, but besides freedom of speech, assembly and the rule of non-discrimination.
The imagination of “Star Trek” from my childhood assumed that technologies defend dignity and freedom. Starfleet was not building cameras to track citizens, but ships to research fresh worlds.
If we want to avoid a dystopian scenario, we request clear legal and ethical boundaries before autonomous weapon systems and surveillance become our regular reality.
