Kiwis stare down killer robots
Wildlife is also a big hit with couples who happily pose with cows, alpaca and horses, and Williams can rustle up sheep on request. Shoots last anything from a couple of hours to a couple of days, with multiple changes of outfits.
‘‘Some like to have two or three changes of dresses. When I say ‘are you going to wear those dresses again at your wedding?’ they’ll say, ‘no I’ll have another gown for that.’’’
Cheng Li of Kylin Image Photography said business really picked up after he attended a wedding expo in Shanghai three years ago. He has branches in Auckland and Queenstown with 200 hire gowns at each, and he photographed about 300 couples from mainland China in the last year.
Social media also has a huge influence and the pre-wedding market got a boost last year when Chinese celebrity actress Liu Shishi and Taiwanese singer and actor NickyWujetted in for a pre-shoot in the Waitomo Glowworm Caves ahead of their wedding ceremony in Bali. A New Zealand robotics company has taken a moral stand against the ‘‘very real threat’’ of killer robots.
X-Craft Enterprises founder Philip Solaris, signed the first New Zealand name on an open letter to the United Nations this week, calling for an international ban on the creation and use of Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS) – weaponised drones, tanks and robots that can target, shoot and kill without human control.
He said he signed it to put pressure on New Zealand’s Government and politicians to ‘‘wake up’’ and realise the threat to humanity LAWS pose.
Solaris said he had seen what Israel’s robotics companies were developing and armed, decisionmaking machines were a ‘‘spooky’’ reality.
‘‘It is not far-fetched. It is very real … You do not actually have to be that high tech to cause a lot of damage.’’
International military have deployed weapons that have limited human control, but there are no reported, fully-autonomous weapons being used yet.
Solaris said the closest development was the Taranis, an unmanned drone for combat that flies and operates without human command. It was created by United Kingdom aviation technology companies for its military.
His decision to sign the letter came from his fear that war would soon become an arms race, and New Zealand was not exempt.
‘‘This is a revolution in warfare. You are no longer limited to the amount of dead bodies that come home in the plane. If you are not worried about body count any more, you are more likely to wage a war.’’
The letter was released on Monday to kick off the 26th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence held in Melbourne this week.
Founder of New Zealand commercial drone maker Aeronavics, Rob Brouwer, was not asked to sign the letter, but said he definitely would.
Although many Kiwis are pushing for the Government to stand against killer robots, the Kiwi co-ordinating the global Campaign To Stop Killer Robots, Mary Wareham, said she was disappointed that New Zealand had not yet formed a national policy against LAWS like 19 other countries had.
Peace Movement Aotearoa coordinator Edwina Hughes said X-Craft’s stand was a small win and the Labour Party’s disarmament policy supported a ban on killer robots, but the National Party had not mentioned its opinion on the issue.
Former foreign affairs minister Murray McCully had told Wareham LAWS were being discussed in 2013 and foreign affairs minister Gerry Brownlee this week said New Zealand had ‘‘stressed its support for retaining human control over new types of weapons’’ during Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons discussions.
Brownlee did not give his opinion on LAWS, but said he welcomed ‘‘intensified discussion’’ on their use.
Solaris and Brouwer said they were not surprised that the Government had not made a public announcement either condemning or supporting LAWS.
Brouwer said most drone companies here were interested in agriculture or cinematography, not weaponry and Solaris said the Government could be avoiding the debate because LAWS would be created and used in warfare, regardless of New Zealand’s opinion.
‘‘I think the Government is aware that bad guys are going to do what they are going to do.’’