If one scientist raises the alarm about the danger of killer robots, then perhaps he’s been watching too much Terminator. When over 3,000 scientists, professors, and numerous artificial intelligence and robotics researchers – including the likes of Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk, and Steve Wozniak – bring this problem to our attention, then perhaps we should listen.
Well listen up: the technology-for-good Future of Life Institute recently published an open letter warning the world about autonomous weapons, and sheer number of signatories alone should give us all pause. Then again, scientists are near-universal in their admonitions about global climate change, yet many people are turning a deaf ear – will this dire warning be any different?
The argument in the letter is straightforward. “Autonomous weapons select and engage targets without human intervention,” and furthermore, “Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology has reached a point where the deployment of such systems is — practically if not legally — feasible within years, not decades.”
As a result, “a global arms race is virtually inevitable,” where autonomous weapons (killer robots, drones, and the like) will become “the Kalashnikovs of tomorrow.”
The letter does delineate an opposing viewpoint. “Replacing human soldiers by machines is good by reducing casualties for the owner,” for example – a benefit the current generation of military drones has already proven to great extent. And yet, mitigating this benefit is the possibility that “lowering the threshold for going to battle” will lead to greater casualties overall.
Read the entire article at http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonbloomberg/2015/07/30/killer-robots-one-more-thing-to-worry-about/.
Intellyx advises companies on their digital transformation initiatives and helps vendors communicate their agility stories. As of the time of writing, none of the organizations mentioned in this article are Intellyx customers. Image credit: Thor.
