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DeepMind, Elon Musk and Others Pledge Not To Make Autonomous AI Weapons (engadget.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Engadget: Yesterday, during the Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, the Future of Life Institute announced that more than 2,400 individuals and 160 companies and organizations have signed a pledge, declaring that they will "neither participate in nor support the development, manufacture, trade or use of lethal autonomous weapons." The signatories, representing 90 countries, also call on governments to pass laws against such weapons. Google DeepMind and the Xprize Foundation are among the groups who've signed on while Elon Musk and DeepMind co-founders Demis Hassabis, Shane Legg and Mustafa Suleyman have made the pledge as well.
"Thousands of AI researchers agree that by removing the risk, attributability and difficulty of taking human lives, lethal autonomous weapons could become powerful instruments of violence and oppression, especially when linked to surveillance and data systems," says the pledge. It adds that those who sign agree that "the decision to take a human life should never be delegated to a machine." "I'm excited to see AI leaders shifting from talk to action, implementing a policy that politicians have thus far failed to put into effect," Future of Life Institute President Max Tegmark said in a statement. "AI has huge potential to help the world -- if we stigmatize and prevent its abuse. AI weapons that autonomously decide to kill people are as disgusting and destabilizing as bioweapons, and should be dealt with in the same way."
"Thousands of AI researchers agree that by removing the risk, attributability and difficulty of taking human lives, lethal autonomous weapons could become powerful instruments of violence and oppression, especially when linked to surveillance and data systems," says the pledge. It adds that those who sign agree that "the decision to take a human life should never be delegated to a machine." "I'm excited to see AI leaders shifting from talk to action, implementing a policy that politicians have thus far failed to put into effect," Future of Life Institute President Max Tegmark said in a statement. "AI has huge potential to help the world -- if we stigmatize and prevent its abuse. AI weapons that autonomously decide to kill people are as disgusting and destabilizing as bioweapons, and should be dealt with in the same way."
The pledge is not worth the paper its printed on. Believe me, once Elon sees a way to make a shit load of money through AI-based weaponry, he'll take action.
Including mine. I'll make two separate devices. One is an AI logic unit that can track threats in real time and determine the optimal kill shot. This device will have an expansion port that receives the data but is unused.
I will also make a fully electronic machine cannon that is fucking deadly and controlled by a human remotely with a joystick or some other type of digital control mechanism. This device will also have an expansion port that will allow control to be received via it as well.
I can't help it if someone clever realizes that if you run a USB cable between the two, it's a neat hack that allows it to function as an autonomous AI killbot.
All it takes is one.
-SM
someone calls him out on twitter. /rimshot
While obviously big players in AI would be able to help develop military AI way faster than without them the hard reality is that this technology already in the wild. And as long as there's a federal government there's going to be corporations mercenary enough to peruse this technology. And this doesn't even take into account the programs of other nation's militaries.
Of course you might have some motion on international agreements on the use of military AI. But much like nuclear weapons there's no feasible way to truly put the proverbial genie back in the bottle. And that's even before we start talking about the idea of rouge actors. That 'SlaughterBot' video that Elon Musk helped fund was overly hyperbolic bullshit. But that doesn't mean they'll never be a group that doesn't come up with autonomous weapons.
Putin says the nation that leads in AI 'will be the ruler of the world'
How about we at least look into some ways to defend against this?
That that is is that that that that is not is not.
They are still working on automated vehicles. Doesn't anyone think about how easy it would be to turn an automated vehicle into a weapon?
Put a bomb in the trunk, use the automated vehicle to get it to the target, and a cell phone to track/detonate the bomb when it gets there...
And any image recognition system, once advanced enough, can be easily adapted to a targeting system.
Even if they don't want weapons, the technology they do continue to work on will sooner or later make it's way into weapons.
The only question is who will have access to them first.
-Nick
My name is Obi-Wan Kenobi. You killed my master. Prepare to die.