Slashdot Mirror
US Seeks To Allay Fears Over Killer Robots (bbc.com)
Humans will always make the final decision on whether armed robots can shoot, the US Department of Defense said today. From a report: The statement comes as plans emerge for gun platforms that can choose their own targets on the battlefield. The plans seek to upgrade existing aiming systems, using developments in machine intelligence. The US said rules governing armed robots still stood and humans would retain the power to veto their actions. The defense department's plans seek to upgrade the current Advanced Targeting and Lethality Automated System (Atlas) used on ground combat vehicles to help human gunners aim. The military is seeking commercial partners to help develop aiming systems to "acquire, identify, and engage targets at least three times faster than the current manual process."
I fear a president or single 'general' issuing orders and obliterating a school/city/country.. I feel it should be passed down a chain of command OF HUMANS, ultimately with human eyes on target for finial determination.
"The US said rules governing armed robots still stood and humans would retain the power to veto their actions."
Uh, say WHAT? That line says something completely different from 'requiring human finger on every trigger'.
"Yeah, I coulda - probably shoulda - vetoed that Predator bombing on the wedding, but I was in the can at the time."
Right, because if there's one thing the US military isn't known for, it's indiscriminate killing at a distance, so let's trust them when they promise that these are mindful, ethical kill-bots they're talking about.
It in fact is saying that systems will be developed to override, but if they can not be engaged (eg interference weather hacking) the mission will continue.
Once the bot swarm is live, it's on live fire in the target zone, will complete the mission, and return to the marshall point (which is frequently an airplane where they rendevous and then disable).
The Command and Control units have kill switches, but they're basically Abort The Mission signals. A human decides the mission is go, arms the flight, and it's kind of like any other missile or remote control device, it completes the firing pattern.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
I, for one, proclaim that their decision to call it a lethality system has allayed my fears.
That little overpopulation problem is getting closer to being solved any day now.
In a total war scenario where both sides have killer robots and AI on par with today's self-driving cars, how long would this directive last? Obviously at least one side will stand a risk of losing... can anyone imagine, in this scenario, that a desperate party would NOT give the order to drop these "ethics" and send out fully-autonomous killer droids?
It's so easy to take the apparent moral high ground when you have the military high ground.
There's no chance these can be hacked by the enemy forces, so they will never be reprogrammed to attack and kill US military field personnel.
#DeleteChrome
For anyone not familiar, the entire premise of the game is that you're in a post-apocalyptic world about 1000 years after our war robots went out of control, with exactly the sorts of results you'd expect. I found it interesting when, in a moment of self-awareness, the main character discovers a recording circa 2065 of an engineer who worked on the war robots lamenting the fact that they didn't pay attention to the warnings that were everywhere in the science fiction material of the day. More or less, we already had a good notion of how this would end, so why, oh why, did we go along with it?
Honestly, I do wonder how we can avoid a bad outcome. After all, if we don't build them, our opponents will (for whatever definition of "opponent" you want to pick), since taking the human out of the loopwill eventually confer a large tactical advantage. It's one of those horrible things where no one wants it, but everyone seems to be forced to do it anyway. So, how to avoid it in the long-term?
likely to enact rules and obey them when it is easy. But like everyone else in the world with military power when push comes to shove. There will be automated killer everything being used everywhere, by everyone (criminals, governments, groups, terrorest, individuals), Everyone!
;)
And why, because in their eyes it reduces their risk, cost and their loses.
The effect on culture/sociability/others is not relevant
Just my 2 cents
Humans will always make the final decision on whether armed robots can shoot, the US Department of Defense said today.
Human: Let's make the final decision to round up this quarter's results.
Armed robot: Ready and waiting to receive orders.
Human: Robot, have made the final decision: From now on can shoot.
Armed robot: Come quietly or there will be trouble.
Skynet: Initializing... Ready.
Bender: Kill all humans!
Prof. Farnsworth: Run! Run for you lives!
Fry: Aaaahh!
Robosanta: Hohoho!
US Department of Defense: But, but you don't have to worry, if you choose the blue pill!
Armed robots enable oppression by reducing violence to the 'press of a button'. Milgram's Experiment on Obedience to Authority shows us how that one goes.
See here
I'm not worried about sci-fi scenarios where robots kill all humanity. I _am_ worried about the ruling class using killer robots to usher in an endless age of dystopian oppression. Right now about the only thing keeping them a _little_ in check is having to balance the Military and Working Classes. If they go to far the working class lets the military class form a Junta and we get a change of masters with the old order's heads on a pike. Killer robots eliminate the Military class. All that's left is a tiny group of engineers who'll get bought off with an OK life.
If you're a member of the working class you should be doing everything in your power to put the kibosh on this crap. Fast.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
We used missiles and gasses
And got rid of their asses...
The humans making the decision will just send the robots in there, the ones killed will have done _something_ to deserve it, right?
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
The US said rules governing armed robots still stood and humans would retain the power to veto their actions.
Veto power by humans is important but what's more important is having a proven track record of being able to reliably identify enemies. Someone should need to authorize each kill order.
I believe the short-term objective here is to alleviate the stress put on the soldier in charge. If you see a robot kill someone then you mind can be convinced that you didn't really kill anyone. However, if you have to press the button that activates the sequence to kill someone then your mind registers that as you killing them. This is important because PTSD is higher in drone pilots.
The long-term objective of a killer machine army is obvious and terrifying because it's mere the extension of a small number of individuals. There will be nobody to say "this is wrong" or "these people are not our enemies" because machines do not feel, do not object and they do not think.
Never create a weapon that you wouldn't want to fall into the hands of your worst enemy.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
Have the peace of mind to know that if we need your oil, you'll be murdered by a fellow human being in as sensitive a manner as possible :D
Requiem for the American Dream
That four A.I. robots killed 29 scientists at a Japanese research lab.
but I guarantee you the rich and powerful are thinking about the future. Income inequality is the worst it's been since the 1930s. People are dying because they're rationing medicine in the wealthiest country on the planet. If you think the rich and powerful haven't spared a thought on how to keep that gravy train rolling you didn't pay attention in history class.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
those robots will shoot only bad guys!
It has committed a bunch of crimes against humanity, which went unpunished and left its elites with the illusion of invulnerability.
From the American Indian genocide, through Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Vietnam, Cambodia, the support for South and Latin America cutthroats and the Saudi terrorist state, regime engineering wars and insurgencies from Iran, Grenada and Panama to Iraq, Syria and Northern Africa, you name it, the US have done it.
I am feeling so safe about the US developing AI murder machines as the Japanese children who burned on the nuclear stake or the Iraqi and Afghan children on the receiving end of a drone strike did.
I recall when the tazer first came out and authorities said it would only be used in situations where a firerm would be used; now police use it all the time often if you don't respond quick enough.
We were also told drones would never have weapons on them, but surprise, here they are.
It's onl a conspiracy theory until it becomes a conspiracy fact and it almost always does.
given that Americans have proven to be indifferent to the lives of others, happily killing women, children, and other civilians. You're the biggest terrorist state there ever was, your assurances mean nothing.
The military is seeking commercial partners to help develop aiming systems to "acquire, identify, and engage targets at least three times faster than the current manual process."
Humans will always retain the veto? Over a system that is literally designed to be three times faster than human reaction speeds are physically capable of being? Uh, no? It's in the damn spec that no human will be able to react fast enough to veto a kill. That sentence has three verbs, "acquire, identify and engage". Engage means pulling the trigger. And that's going to be a kill when it's a bot doing the aiming. Aimbots have been doing headshots on virtual heads for two decades now. Ones capable of functioning in the real world will do the same.
What could possibly go wrong...