I've been interested in AI tech for a long time. There was a first "wave" or hype if you will back in the mid 80ties that cooled down relatively fast because the tech just wasn't sophisticated/evolved enough back then.
This has changed massively since then and especially in the last 15 years AI improvements really became visible in many fields of science and our every day lives.
Just think about it. Now we got autonomous driving, translation apps that really work, pattern recognition technology that gets better by the hour, AI beating the worlds best Go players, I don't even need to mention unbeatable chess apps and IBM's Watson being unbeatable in a popular TV game show and many more AI driven achievements that became common knowledge today.
Things like ANI tech (artificial narrow intelligence) applications are common nowadays and with the help of machine learning even more complex problems can be mastered by AI.
Without making a deep dive into how this became possible we have a urgent problem at hand right now!
FAW's (fully autonomous weapons) or LAW's (lethal autonomous weapons) are already a reality for some nation states and could become a reality for many others and even at a construction kit level, with some technical expertise become in reach for other nefarious groups (terrorists, militias and so on).
I strongly support a worldwide ban of FAW's and I urge you to think about this and to possibly support this ban as well!
Let me tell you why!
The problem:
Fully autonomous weapons would decide who lives and dies, without further human intervention, which crosses a moral threshold. As machines, they would lack the inherently human characteristics such as compassion that are necessary to make complex ethical choices.
The US, China, Israel, South Korea, Russia, and the UK are developing weapons systems with significant autonomy in the critical functions of selecting and attacking targets. If left unchecked the world could enter a destabilizing robotic arms race.
Replacing troops with machines could make the decision to go to war easier and shift the burden of conflict even further on to civilians. Fully autonomous weapons would make tragic mistakes with unanticipated consequences that could inflame tensions.
Fully autonomous weapons would lack the human judgment necessary to evaluate the proportionality of an attack, distinguish civilian from combatant, and abide by other core principles of the laws of war. History shows their use would not be limited to certain circumstances.
It’s unclear who, if anyone, could be held responsible for unlawful acts caused by a fully autonomous weapon: the programmer, manufacturer, commander, and machine itself. This accountability gap would make it is difficult to ensure justice, especially for victims.
Fully autonomous weapons could be used in other circumstances outside of armed conflict, such as in border control and policing. They could be used to suppress protest and prop-up regimes. Force intended as non-lethal could still cause many deaths.
The solution
Retain meaningful human control over targeting and attack decisions by prohibiting development, production, and use of fully autonomous weapons. Legislate the ban through national laws and by international treaty.
All countries should articulate their views on the concerns raised by fully autonomous weapons and commit to create a new ban treaty to establish the principle of meaningful human control over the use of force.
All technology companies and organizations as well as individuals working to develop artificial intelligence and robotics should pledge to never contribute to the development of fully autonomous weapons.
Text in the sections "The problem" & "The solution" sourced here
If you want to learn more about the problem and the efforts to reach a worldwide ban please check the following websites and maybe think about getting involved and getting your voice heard in regards to a ban of FAW:
https://autonomousweapons.org/
https://www.stopkillerrobots.org/act/
I just had to get this off of my chest!
Please let me know what you think about this down in the comment section!
Cheers!
Lucky