BAE Systems unveils its Taranis unmanned stealth aircraft prototype. Photograph: BAE Systems
Should A Robot Decide When To Kill? -- Adrianne Jeffries, The Verge
The ethics of war machines
By the time the sun rose on Friday, December 19th, the Homestead Miami race track had been taken over by robots. Some hung from racks, their humanoid feet dangling above the ground as roboticists wheeled them out of garages. One robot resembled a gorilla, while another looked like a spider; yet another could have been mistaken for a designer coffee table. Teams of engineers from MIT, Google, Lockheed Martin, and other institutions and companies replaced parts, ran last-minute tests, and ate junk food. Spare heads and arms were everywhere.
It was the start of the Robotics Challenge Trials, a competition put on by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the branch of the US Department of Defense dedicated to high risk, high reward technology projects. Over a period of two days, the machines would attempt a series of eight tasks including opening doors, clearing a pile of rubble, and driving a car.
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My Comment: The order to kill will probably remain a human decision in the foreseeable future .... but robot/drone/computer technology is developing very quickly, and who knows where AI (Artificial Intelligence) and other research projects will eventually bring.
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If Artificial Intelligence (AI) is that smart and has or will have the capacity to out-do its human decision making, inference and intervention then the first thing AI will do is go after the 'Dark Pools' in banking, monetary and financial transactions. Next, AI will go after Arms and Drug trade before it embarks on the entire logistics of Energy, Transportation and Shipping Grids. The presence of AI as Cybots and Robots in the battle field is as small as foot soldiers in the trenches. The same way soldiers are small in comparison to cops, detectives, air marshals, intelligence and investigative agents in the machinations of governance.
AI is NOT that intelligent nor pervasive in the battle field.
As to assurance that "Robots Won't Kill" and Humans will be in Control is far from assuring or comfortable. Neither the ill-informed Suicide Bombers, Terrorists, Al-Qaeda, Jihadis, Insurgents, Guerrilla Fighters nor the well-informed JSOC, JCOS, Blackwater-type Militia, CIA, US-NATO Military have demonstrated HUMAN INTELLIGENCE in their Killing Strategy and Tactics.
Humans from ancient Alexander's Army and Sparta to modern Delta Force and Marines have mostly exemplified idiocy and arrogance, and very little of intelligence.
AI like all technology, is Garbage-In, Garbage-Out. Therefore, any AI in current and future form will merely reflect Pax Americana HUBRIS not intelligence. And yes, robots will kill as stupidly as those who take orders from Senator Diane Feinstein or Prime Minister Netahyahu. Stalin, Hitler, Truman, Johnson or Assad.
When AI understands Tsung Tsu and 'The Art of War,' those like me who came to America for AI shall worry. “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”
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