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A United Nations commission is meeting in Geneva, Switzerland today to begin discussions on placing controls on the development of weapons systems that can target and kill without the intervention of humans, the New York Times reports. The discussions come a year after a UN Human Rights Council report called for a ban (pdf) on “Lethal autonomous robotics” and as some scientists express concerns that artificially intelligent weapons could potentially make the wrong decisions about who to kill.
SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk recently called artificial intelligence potentially more dangerous than nuclear weapons.
Peter Asaro, the cofounder of the International Committee for Robot Arms Control (ICRAC), told the Times, “Our concern is with how the targets are determined, and more importantly, who determines them—are these human-designated targets? Or are these systems automatically deciding what is a target?”
Intelligent weapons systems are intended to reduce the risk to both innocent bystanders and friendly troops, focusing their lethality on carefully—albeit artificially—chosen targets. The technology in development now could allow unmanned aircraft and missile systems to avoid and evade detection, identify a specific target from among a clutter of others, and destroy it without communicating with the humans who launched them.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 13 2014, @10:43AM
The fact that they are even debating this at all is scary.
There is NO debate.
"Intelligent weapons systems are intended to reduce the risk to both innocent bystanders..."
Gotta love the word "intended".
The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 13 2014, @11:59AM
Good intentions indeed. You try to host a corporate news site for your jolly club of illiterate idiots, and a bunch of free thinking antichrists post such disagreeable things to your comments section! You try to ban them, but you know they'll be bach.
The trolls are out there! They can't be bargained with. They can't be reasoned with. They don't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And they absolutely will not stop!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
(Score: 1) by albert on Thursday November 13 2014, @06:30PM
Oddly, I get the feeling you don't agree with the conclusion that such systems are obviously very important to deploy in great numbers ASAP.
The world is populated by countries with good weapons because other countries cease to exist, not counting those that have a slave-like relationship to a powerful ally and those that have nothing of value.
It's like evolution, but with countries. You will live in a country protected by these weapons. The only questions: Will your government be a direct descendant of your current government? Will these weapons be under direct control of your government, or will they be controlled by a government that supports the existence of your country in exchange for something? (you aren't likely to be in a zero-value country if you can post to soylentnews)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 14 2014, @12:17AM
Didn't even think of this.
It is even scarier now that you mention it.
Who will be future curators of said AI weapons?
(Score: 1) by anubi on Friday November 14 2014, @02:32AM
I get the idea the whole world governments will be controlled by the banking elite, who need unlimited force to back their claims to owning the world. The whole world is in debt to them to repay interest on the dollars which only the bankers have the charter to print from thin air.
Now, how one can rightfully demand usury on that which they never had in the first place escapes me, but the inevitable outcome of allowing selected entities to print currency also means they will end up owning everything.
This has happened before. From all I can tell, all of our wars and social uprisings are the result of the wealth balance shifting too much to too few - not as reward for work, but as rights transferred through financial manipulation.
The elite are getting so few yet so wealthy that they have few people they can trust, so they need machines - with the soul of a machine - to back up their pens.
That way, they can be 'nice', knowing that anyone who disagrees with them can simply be cancelled.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Friday November 14 2014, @10:09AM
I don't think those are (or should be) the only questions by a longshot.
I see a much more crucial question as a civilian: will the weapons my government acquires be used elsewhere in the world in actual battles, elsewhere to subjugate inconvenient civilians, or will they be used domestically to subjugate our own civilians? Will the weapons be only available to the military, or will the National Guard be allowed to (ab)use them, or will it be like so much other military tech and end up in the hands of the same militarized police forces we already have good reason to fear?
(Score: 1) by albert on Saturday November 15 2014, @08:21AM
Of course these weapons will be used.
Either your current government (or protector government) does this, or it is replaced by one that does.
I suppose it is possible to use these weapons only between nations instead of within a nation, but that seems unlikely.