Reaper Drone. Image INQUIRER.net stock photo
Artificial intelligence research has been improving at a rapid rate, and this has gotten prominent figures like Tesla CEO Elon Musk concerned.
In an open letter released at the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence 2017 in Melbourne, Musk, Google DeepMind head Mustafa Suleyman and other AI experts urged the United Nations to find ways of preventing an arms race using AI-powered weapons.
The IJCAI is an international gathering of AI specialists where they discuss various issues concerning artificial intelligence development.
The letter reads, “Lethal autonomous weapons threaten to become the third revolution in warfare. Once developed, they will permit armed conflict to be fought at a scale greater than ever, and at timescales faster than humans can comprehend.”
Simply put, technology experts are warning of artificial intelligence being used to create killer robots which fight wars for humans. They also warn about the dangers of said robots going out of control.
The letter continues to explain that autonomous weapons could be hacked and made to behave in undesirable ways. This could be done by terrorists to endanger innocent populations.
“We do not have long to act. Once this Pandora’s box is opened, it will be hard to close,” the open letter further warned.
Autonomous weapons are already deployed on the battlefield. Among these are the Reaper drones which fly over the skies of Afghanistan to perform precision strikes. More are said to be in development.
Musk has continually warned of the dangers of abuse and misuse of artificial intelligence. He often says that development of the technology must be done responsibly if it is to benefit humanity. JB
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