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posted by Snow on Tuesday August 28 2018, @10:23PM   Printer-friendly
from the pew-pew-pew dept.

Submitted via IRC for takyon

Inside the United Nations' effort to regulate autonomous killer robots

Amandeep Gill has a difficult job, though he won't admit it himself. As chair of the United Nations' Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) meetings on lethal autonomous weapons, he has the task of shepherding 125 member states through discussions on the thorny technical and ethical issue of "killer robots" — military robots that could theoretically engage targets independently. It's a subject that has attracted a glaring media spotlight and pressure from NGOs like Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, which is backed by Tesla's Elon Musk and Alphabet's Mustafa Suleyman, to ban such machines outright.

[...] The CCW will meet for the third time for discussions on lethal autonomous weapons (LAWs), from August 27th through 31st, after which it will likely issue a report and decide upon continuing discussions next year. The Verge spoke to Gill about Hollywood depictions of dangerous machines, weapons that already exist or are in development, and a potential ban on killer robots.

Also at CBS.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 28 2018, @10:33PM (9 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 28 2018, @10:33PM (#727530)

    but I noticed the real story is further down the page:

    [second life] players can buy blue breast veins, cellulite, and stretch marks.

    On topic: what if the computers does a better job of identifying who to blow up. People make mistakes too and what I keep reading here and other sites is that no matter the field, the computer will make fewer mistakes.

  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday August 28 2018, @10:55PM (7 children)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday August 28 2018, @10:55PM (#727545) Journal

    People make mistakes too and what I keep reading here and other sites is that no matter the field, the computer will make fewer mistakes.

    “A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any other invention with the possible exceptions of handguns and Tequila.”
    Mitch Ratcliffe

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 28 2018, @11:44PM (4 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 28 2018, @11:44PM (#727560)

      Doesn't matter as long as they make fewer mistakes than people.

          - Every post on autonomous car safety ever

      • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday August 29 2018, @01:17AM (3 children)

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday August 29 2018, @01:17AM (#727599) Journal
        "As long as" is the obvious rebuttal.
        • (Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday August 29 2018, @04:43AM (2 children)

          by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Wednesday August 29 2018, @04:43AM (#727678) Journal

          Maybe there's a crossover point where the productive man hours saved by not having workers drive themselves outweigh an increase in deaths caused by autonomous vehicles.

          We gotta hit the road!

          --
          [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
          • (Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Friday August 31 2018, @02:35PM (1 child)

            by hendrikboom (1125) Subscriber Badge on Friday August 31 2018, @02:35PM (#728757) Homepage Journal

            The evidence so far seems to be that the autonomous vehicles drive more safely than human drivers. At least the well-built and properly tested models are. When we reach the stage of cheap knock-offs, who knows?

            • (Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday September 01 2018, @09:06AM

              by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday September 01 2018, @09:06AM (#729165) Journal

              The evidence so far seems to be that the autonomous vehicles drive more safely than human drivers.

              Subject to some serious limitations that make autonomous vehicles nonviable in the real world (such as requiring a skilled driver to take over at a moment's notice and max speeds of around 25-35 MPH).

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by mhajicek on Wednesday August 29 2018, @05:55AM (1 child)

      by mhajicek (51) on Wednesday August 29 2018, @05:55AM (#727690)

      I'm not so concerned about mistakes, as I am about there being no moral compass between the tyrant and the trigger. The massacre of millions of civilians may well be intentional.

      --
      The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
      • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday August 29 2018, @06:20AM

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday August 29 2018, @06:20AM (#727695) Journal

        as I am about there being no moral compass between the tyrant and the trigger.

        I'm more concerned about a tyrant setting those loose without even controlling the trigger because, what the heck, chaos serves his purposes or he has nothing more to lose.

        --
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 29 2018, @12:44PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 29 2018, @12:44PM (#727795)

    Yeah, the robot will get ethics routines implemented, so it only shoots evil humans. Unfortunately by analysing our behaviour, it comes to the conclusion that all humans are evil.