More than 100 leading robotics experts are urging the United Nations to take action in order to prevent the development of “killer robots”.<\/p>\n
In a letter to the organisation, artificial intelligence (AI) leaders, including billionaire Elon Musk, warn of “a third revolution in warfare”.<\/p>\n
The letter says “lethal autonomous” technology is a “Pandora’s box”, adding that time is of the essence.<\/p>\n
The 116 experts are calling for a ban on the use of AI in managing weaponry.<\/p>\n
“Once developed, they will permit armed conflict to be fought at a scale greater than ever, and at times scales faster than humans can comprehend,” the letter says.<\/p>\n
“These can be weapons of terror, weapons that despots and terrorists use against innocent populations, and weapons hacked to behave in undesirable ways,” it adds.<\/p>\n
There is an urgent tone to the message from the technology leaders, who warn that “we do not have long to act”.<\/p>\n
“Once this Pandora’s box is opened, it will be hard to close.”<\/p>\n
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 (CCW).<\/p>\n
Along with Tesla co-founder and chief executive Mr Musk, the technology leaders include Mustafa Suleyman, Google’s DeepMind co-founder.<\/p>\n
A UN group focusing on autonomous weaponry was scheduled to meet on Monday but the meeting has been postponed until November, according to the group’s website.<\/p>\n
A potential ban on the development of “killer robot” technology has previously been discussed by UN committees.<\/p>\n
In 2015, more than 1,000 tech experts, scientists, and researchers\u00a0wrote a letter\u00a0warning about the dangers of autonomous weaponry.<\/p>\n
Among the signatories of the 2015 letter were scientist Stephen Hawking, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and Mr Musk.<\/p>\n
A killer robot is a fully autonomous weapon that can select and engage targets without human intervention. They do not currently exist but advances in technology are bringing them closer to reality.<\/p>\n
Those in favour of killer robots believe the current laws of war may be sufficient to address any problems that might emerge if they are ever deployed, arguing that a moratorium, not an outright ban, should be called if this is not the case.<\/p>\n
However, those who oppose their use believe they are a threat to humanity and any autonomous “kill functions” should be banned.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
More than 100 leading robotics experts are urging the United Nations to take action in order to prevent the development of “killer robots”. In a letter to the organisation, artificial intelligence (AI) leaders, including billionaire Elon Musk, warn of “a third revolution in warfare”. The letter says “lethal autonomous” technology is a “Pandora’s box”, adding […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[106],"tags":[10345,10346,1686],"yoast_head":"\n