Musk, Woz, Hawking, and Robotics/AI Experts Urge Ban On Autonomous Weapons

An anonymous reader writes: An open letter published by the Future of Life Institute urges governments to ban offensive autonomous weaponry. The letter is signed by high profile leaders in the science community and tech industry, such as Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking, Steve Wozniak, Noam Chomsky, and Frank Wilczek. It's also signed — more importantly — by literally hundreds of expert researchers in robotics and AI. They say, "The key question for humanity today is whether to start a global AI arms race or to prevent it from starting. If any major military power pushes ahead with AI weapon development, a global arms race is virtually inevitable, and the endpoint of this technological trajectory is obvious: autonomous weapons will become the Kalashnikovs of tomorrow. Unlike nuclear weapons, they require no costly or hard-to-obtain raw materials, so they will become ubiquitous and cheap for all significant military powers to mass-produce."

Comments

May as well ban rain

[TheCarp]

I just don't see the point. These will be developed, and no amount of banning them will stop it or even slow it down.

Re:I have no fear of AI, but fear AI weapons

[DroolTwist]

Since once your drone exited the store, chances are cops still aren't there yet. Then, you just fly, literally, as the crow flies to your pickup spot. Nobody on foot would be able to catch up (short of a parkour vigilante), so your only real chance of being caught is if there was an eyewitness to you retrieving your haul from the drone.