WEAPONIZED AI NARRATIVES – FICTION OR PREDICTION?

This study examines the interactions among artificial intelligence, autonomous weapon systems, and science-fiction narratives. Its interdisciplinary comparative analysis juxtaposes risk models identified in works depicting weaponized artificial intelligence across different media with the technological characteristics of currently known autonomous and partially autonomous weapon systems. Within this approach, science fiction is understood as a form of speculative modelling that renders the relationships among military automation, the erosion of human control, and the diffusion of responsibility accessible to analysis through extreme scenarios. The normative and interpretative framework of the analysis is provided by Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica humanitas. The encyclical extends the disarmament of AI to the social and ethical problems associated with technological competition, the concentration of power, and automated decision-making. This perspective situates narratives of machine-related threats within the context of human objectives, institutional decisions, and regulatory deficiencies. The study finds that current autonomous weapon systems entail serious military, legal, and ethical risks, yet their technological limitations prevent them from constituting an independent existential threat at present. Systemic danger may increase through the integration of capabilities that enable strategic autonomy, networked scalability, and growing independence from human oversight. Prevention requires the preservation of meaningful human control and the coordinated application of legal, ethical, social, and technical norms.