An international effort from leaders in technology and artificial intelligence (AI) spearheaded by Elon Musk is calling on the United Nations to take proactive measures against the spread of future lethal autonomous technology: killer robots.
The open letter signed by over 100 industry leaders to include the renowned CEO of Tesla and SpaceX cites the threat of “Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems” as the “third revolution in warfare,” following gunpowder and nuclear weapons, that will “permit armed conflict to be fought at a scale greater than ever, and at timescales faster than humans can comprehend.â€
“These can be weapons of terror, weapons that despots and terrorists use against innocent populations, and weapons hacked to behave in undesirable ways.â€
The letter ends with an ominous warning: “We do not have long to act. Once this Pandora’s box is opened, it will be hard to close.â€
As it stands, the United Nations has established a Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) on Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems within the UN’s Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. There are no specifics on how the UN should proceed with the initiative in the letter, only encouragement to “work hard at finding means to prevent an arms race in these weapons.â€
Musk has long warned against the threat posed by artificial intelligence. In 2014, he called it mankind’s “biggest existential threat.†Many technology leaders believe AI will not only improve our day-to-day lives by making certain tasks easier, but will have a similar effect on warfare.
For example, a group or nation which possesses the ability to launch autonomous drones against a rival or enemy that does not possess a similar capability will face much less risk, and thereby be encouraged to initiate hostilities.
The doomsday scenarios are easy to imagine. Automated, industrialized warfare has long been prophesied as a dystopian future in literature and movies, where in the ultimate irony, machines built by man to make life easier, cause man to face extinction at the hands of his creations.
Image via Wikipedia
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-YP-
One potential solution I’ve heard watching some lectures on the subject is the decentralization of AI. By democratizing AI, the will of the collective would in theory, “over-ride any entity’s attempt to abuse it’s power”.
15:39
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b57J2dAt2Y0&t=961s
Agree one only has to look at the recent nuclear ban treaty the US made, the people signing it didn’t have nukes, the ones who did ignored it as did their allies. One assumes would be the same here. I also agree most nations won’t use them and the bad ones would ignore the treaties (and petitions) anyway.
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…A mine in a marked minefield is a killing device. It will kill anybody that steps on it. But because it is in a marked minefield, there is no heavy moral consideration involved. But if a machine gets to make the final “kill” decision then maybe we should protest… destroy our laptops, throw out our toasters… (Image below: Click to enlarge…)
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3d397f6b06be5d980b53f51b5503e0fc02c33593a0e229d52f30ef5f1183ab9d.jpg .
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-YP-
Autonomous weapons are an obvious threat but it should also be noted:
Musk has stated that his fear is the high probability that AI systems designed to perform benign functions such as deleting spam can have highly consequential results if proper precautions are not implemented. This is an example he often cites and a hypothetical situation where an algorithm may deduct that no humans=no spam.
If there ever was a truly “malevolent” AI, it’s easy to jump to the conclusion that it would resort to the primitive method of destruction to control human populations. One thing that many don’t consider, however, is possibility that a “bad” AI could control humanity through manipulation.
Algorithms already exist on social media which are able to, based on user information, predict exactly what kind of advertisements and political propaganda would be most effective toward you. Entire psychological profiles can be built and are utilized against target markets on a daily basis through google search history, online quizzes, and even purchases made. Cambridge analytics utilized data mining and AI to help influence the election of Trump, and played an enormous role in Brexit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Analytica#2016_presidential_election
So if a self-aware, “bad” AI ever came into being, why would it feel the need to destroy humanity if it could just as easily control it?