Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
STOP THE RISE OF THE TERMINATORS
Top scientists urge UN tech ban
EXPERTS on artificial intelligence have urged the UN to block development of “killer robots”.
Billionaire Elon Musk is among 116 signatories of a letter calling for a ban on the use of AI in weapons.
The group warns of “a third revolution in warfare” – in which the apocalyptic visions of the Terminator films could became a reality.
“Killer robots” are fully autonomous weapons that select and engage targets with no human intervention.
They do not exist yet – but advances in technology could soon change that. The letter states: “Once developed, they will permit armed conflict to be fought at a scale greater than ever and at timescales faster than humans can comprehend. “These can be weapons despots and terrorists use against innocent populations, weapons hacked to behave in undesirable ways... we do not have long.
“Once this Pandora’s box is opened, it will be hard to close.”
The 116 experts are calling for what they describe as “morally wrong” technology to be added to the list of weapons banned under the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons.
As well as Tesla co-founder Mr Musk, letter backers include Google’s Deepmind co-founder, Mustafa Suleyman.
A UN group focusing on autonomous weaponry was scheduled to meet on Monday but the session has been postponed until November. UN committees have previously discussed a potential ban on “killer robot” technology.
In 2015, more than 1,000 tech experts, scientists and researchers signed a letter warning of the dangers. Among them were physicist Stephen Hawking, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and Mr Musk.
AI is already part of our lives, used in calculations behind Google searches or browsing on Amazon to help software learn how to respond more rapidly and effectively. But it is described as “weak” AI because it can only work within the guidelines given by its human inventors.
China and Russia are working on military AI and the US Navy describes its latest Tomahawk cruise missile as “capable of loitering over a target in order to respond to emerging targets”.