The U.S. Army is seriously considering replacing soldiers with robots

The Army is set to trim its ranks by more than 100,000 soldiers. Guess how they're planning to make up the difference?

Army robot
(Image credit: (John Moore/Getty Images))

In industries across the economic spectrum — from food service, to manufacturing, to legal services and medicine — robots and artificial intelligences are taking on what were once exclusively human jobs. And this isn’t just the most basic tasks — as robotics and computing become more sophisticated, the types of work that are being automated are growing in sophistication.

This is coming true in the military, too. Last week at the Army Aviation Symposium, in Arlington, Virginia, Gen. Robert Cone, head of the Army's Training and Doctrine Command, announced that the Army is looking to reduce its human personnel numbers and "recruit" more robots to its ranks.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us

John Aziz is the economics and business correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also an associate editor at Pieria.co.uk. Previously his work has appeared on Business Insider, Zero Hedge, and Noahpinion.