1,000 top tech leaders warn of future filled with 'killer robots'
Technology
1,000 top tech leaders warn of future filled with ‘killer robots’
A group of top tech leaders, including British scientist Stephen Hawking and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, on Tuesday issued a stern warning against the development of so-called killer robots. Autonomous weapons, which use artificial intelligence to select targets without human intervention, constitute “the third revolution in warfare, after gunpowder and nuclear arms,” around 1,000 technology chiefs wrote in an open letter.
The key question for humanity today is whether to start a global AI [artificial intelligence] arms race or to prevent it from starting.
Group of about 1,000 scientists and tech leaders
Authorities are gradually waking up to the risk of robot wars. In May, for the first time, governments began talks on “lethal autonomous weapons systems." In 2012, Washington imposed a 10-year human control requirement on automated weapons, welcomed by campaigners even though they said it should go further. There have been examples of weapons being stopped in their infancy. After U.N.-backed talks, blinding laser weapons were banned in 1998 before they ever hit the battlefield.
