{"id":61717,"date":"2015-08-03T12:00:22","date_gmt":"2015-08-03T11:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=61717"},"modified":"2015-07-30T15:43:50","modified_gmt":"2015-07-30T14:43:50","slug":"musk-wozniak-and-hawking-urge-ban-on-warfare-ai-and-autonomous-weapons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2015\/08\/musk-wozniak-and-hawking-urge-ban-on-warfare-ai-and-autonomous-weapons\/","title":{"rendered":"Musk, Wozniak and Hawking Urge Ban on Warfare AI and Autonomous Weapons"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than 1,000 experts and leading robotics researchers sign open letter warning of military artificial intelligence arms race.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Over 1,000 leading experts in artificial intelligence have signed an open letter calling for a ban on military AI development and autonomous weapons, as depicted within the Terminator sci-fi franchise. Photograph: Moviestore\/REX Shutterstock\/Moviestore\/REX Shutterstock<\/p><\/div>\n

27 Jul 2015 – <\/em>Over 1,000 high-profile artificial intelligence experts and leading researchers have signed an open letter warning of a \u201cmilitary artificial intelligence arms race\u201d and calling for a ban on \u201coffensive autonomous weapons\u201d.<\/p>\n

The letter, presented at the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Buenos Aires, Argentina, was signed by Tesla\u2019s Elon Musk, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Google DeepMind chief executive Demis Hassabis and professor Stephen Hawking<\/a> along with 1,000 AI and robotics researchers.<\/p>\n

The letter states: \u201cAI technology has reached a point where the deployment of [autonomous weapons] is \u2013 practically if not legally \u2013 feasible within years, not decades, and the stakes are high: autonomous weapons have been described as the third revolution in warfare, after gunpowder and nuclear arms.\u201d<\/p>\n

The authors argue that AI can be used to make the battlefield a safer place for military personnel, but that offensive weapons that operate on their own would lower the threshold of going to battle and result in greater loss of human life.<\/p>\n

Should one military power start developing systems capable of selecting targets and operating autonomously without direct human control, it would start an arms race similar to the one for the atom bomb, the authors argue.Unlike nuclear weapons, however, AI requires no specific hard-to-create materials and will be difficult to monitor.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe endpoint of this technological trajectory is obvious: autonomous weapons will become the Kalashnikovs of tomorrow. The key question for humanity today is whether to start a global AI arms race or to prevent it from starting,\u201d said the authors.<\/p>\n

Toby Walsh, professor of AI at the University of New South Wales said: \u201cWe need to make a decision today that will shape our future and determine whether we follow a path of good. We support the call by a number of different humanitarian organisations for a UN ban on offensive autonomous weapons, similar to the recent ban on blinding lasers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Musk and Hawking have warned that AI is \u201cour biggest existential threat\u201d<\/a> and that the development of full AI could \u201cspell the end of the human race\u201d<\/a>. But others, including Wozniak have recently changed their minds on AI, with the Apple co-founder saying that robots would be good for humans, making them like the \u201cfamily pet and taken care of all the time\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At a UN conference in Geneva in April discussing the future of weaponry, including so-called \u201ckiller robots\u201d, the UK opposed a ban<\/a> on the development of autonomous weapons, despite calls from various pressure groups, including the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots.<\/p>\n

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