Over the last few weeks, panic about artificial intelligence has reached a fever pitch. AI industry whistleblowers as well as politicians like Bernie Sanders are sounding the alarm about the potential for an AI-driven apocalypse and the need to slow down or pause further development of the technology.

But lest we forget, AI is in fact already killing human beings, thanks to the increasing deployment of autonomous weapons systems in warfare. A recent high-profile incident, covered by the New York Times last month, saw three Ukrainian civilians killed by an AI-guided drone. An AI system has also infamously been used to select targets in Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza.

Robert Sparrow is a professor of philosophy at Monash University who has written extensively on the ethics of warfare and who has called for a ban on the use of autonomous weapon systems. Jacobin recently interviewed Sparrow about how AI weapons systems are being used now, why he sees their deployment as especially morally disturbing, and what he makes of recent pronouncements about impending doom wrought by artificial intelligence.