'Killer robots' could cause mass atrocities

[Eldorado]

"A new generation of autonomous weapons or “killer robots” could accidentally start a war or cause mass atrocities, a former top Google software engineer has warned.

"Laura Nolan, who resigned from Google last year in protest at being sent to work on a project to dramatically enhance US military drone technology, has called for all AI killing machines not operated by humans to be banned.

"Nolan said killer robots not guided by human remote control should be outlawed by the same type of international treaty that bans chemical weapons."

Full report at the UK Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/sep/15/ex-google-worker-fears-killer-robots-cause-mass-atrocities

And Time Magazine: https://time.com/5673240/china-killer-robots-weapons/

[XenoFish]

They might ban autonomous killing machines, but that won't stop people from making them.

[Piney]

2 hours ago, Eldorado said:

"A new generation of autonomous weapons or “killer robots” could accidentally start a war or cause mass atrocities, a former top Google software engineer has warned.

 

And the U.S. will make them anyway.....

[SHaYap]

Nahhh... U.S. will sell them as America's best but manufacture them in China... 

~

[Sir Smoke aLot]

I just can not see such thing happening in near future. 'Robot' won't do what it wasn't designed to do and every single one among ''smart'' technologies actually need someone to operate them, regardless if it's in military or civilian sector.

It would be good thing to ban production of autonomous killing machines in future but so debate now is not a bad thing but... Who can say for sure that any decision to ban those devices today will be respected 100 years from now? From atomic energy, ICBM's, biological weapons and most essential internationally reached consensuses about other subjects - every single one was disrespected or broken, one way or the other.

Based on that i believe that if time for AI comes, and it's a big if... Then no one will save people from mass atrocities, atrocities which are committed by people on daily basis. Hmm, another question arises, who needs robots for that anyways?

[aztek]

AI committing atrocities may be far in the future, but crooks commiting crimes using drones and robots is much much closer, and i have no doubt it will happen,  it is not that hard to build armed drone,  and you are much more likely to get away,  i can see drones and robots as murder weapons of the future.