Technological arms race with autonomous weapons

Classification

Domain

6. Socioeconomic & Environmental

Subdomain

6.4 Competitive dynamics

Causal entity

Other

Intent

Unintentional

Timing

Post-deployment

Subdomain definition: AI developers or state-like actors competing in an AI ‘race’ by rapidly developing, deploying, and applying AI systems to maximize strategic or economic advantage, increasing the risk they release unsafe and error-prone systems.

Real-world incidents in this subdomain

• 6 Oct 2020Korean Internet Portal Giant Naver Manipulated Shopping and Video Search Algorithms to Favor In-House Services
• 18 Apr 2011Apple Tweaked App Store Ranking Algorithms, Allegedly Resulted in Demotion of Local Apps in China
• 3 Apr 1996Inefficiencies in the United States Resident Matching Program

How other frameworks describe this risk

• Increased competition

  A Collaborative, Human-Centred Taxonomy of AI, Algorithmic, and Automation Harms (Abercrombie2024)

• Geopolitical risk

  Dimensional Characterization and Pathway Modeling for Catastrophic AI Risks (Chin2025)

• Resource conflicts driven by AI development

  A Survey of the Potential Long-term Impacts of AI: How AI Could Lead to Long-term Changes in Science, Cooperation, Power, Epistemics and Values (Clarke2023)

• Worsened conflict

  A Survey of the Potential Long-term Impacts of AI: How AI Could Lead to Long-term Changes in Science, Cooperation, Power, Epistemics and Values (Clarke2023)

• Type 4: Willful indifference

  TASRA: a Taxonomy and Analysis of Societal-Scale Risks from AI (Critch2023)

• Competitive pressures in GPAI product release

  Risk Sources and Risk Management Measures in Support of Standards for General-Purpose AI Systems (Gipiškis2024)

• Opacity (industry opacity)

  Regulating under Uncertainty: Governance Options for Generative AI (G'sell2024)

• AI Race (Environmental/Structural)

  An Overview of Catastrophic AI Risks (Hendrycks2023)

Other entries from Wirtz2022

• Technological, Data and Analytical AI Risks Risk Category
• Loss of control of autonomous systems and unforeseen behaviour due to lack of transparency and self-programming/ reprogramming Risk Sub-Category · 7.1
• Programming error Risk Sub-Category · 7.0
• Lack of data, poor data quality, and biases in training data Risk Sub-Category · 1.1
• Vulnerability of AI systems to attacks and misuse Risk Sub-Category · 2.2
• Lack of AI experts with comprehensive AI knowledge Risk Sub-Category · 6.5
• Immaturity of AI technology can cause incorrect decisions Risk Sub-Category · 7.3
• High investment costs of AI hinder integration Risk Sub-Category · 6.1
• Informational and Communicational AI Risks Risk Category · 4.1
• Manipulation and control of information provision (e.g., personalised adds, filtered news) Risk Sub-Category · 4.1
• Disinformation and computational propaganda Risk Sub-Category · 4.1
• Censorship of opinions expressed in the Internet restricts freedom of expression Risk Sub-Category · 5.2