Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]


Welcome to Conversations. We hope you enjoy your visit.


You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free.


Join our community!


If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
We Can Now Build Autonomous Killing Machines...And Why Its' A Bad Idea
Topic Started: Feb 6 2015, 11:05 PM (96 Views)
Webster
Member Avatar
Wasatch Storyteller & Resident Forum Curmudgeon
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Wired: We Can Now Build Autonomous Killing Machines. And That’s a Very, Very Bad Idea
Excerpt...
Quote:
 
Clearpath Robotics was founded six years ago by three college buddies with a passion for building stuff. Its 80 employees specialize in all-terrain test rigs like the Husky, a stout four-wheeled robot vehicle used by researchers within the Department of Defense. They make drones too, and have even built a robotic boat called the Kingfisher. But there is one thing they will never, ever build: a robot that can kill.

Clearpath is the first and, so far as we can tell, only robotics company to pledge not to build killer robots. The decision, made last year, was simple, says co-founder and CTO Ryan Gariepy, and in fact it’s even helped the company recruit robot experts who’ve been drawn to Clearpath’s unique ethical stance. That’s because ethical questions are becoming a pressing matter for companies that build robotics systems. You see, we’re already at the dawn of the age of killer robots. And we’re completely unprepared for them.

It’s early days still. Korea’s Dodam systems, for example, builds an autonomous robotic turret called the Super aEgis II. It uses thermal cameras and laser range finders to identify and attack targets up to 3 kilometers away. And the US is reportedly experimenting with autonomous missile systems.

We’re ‘nowhere near ready.’
Military drones like the Predator currently are controlled by humans, but Gariepy says it wouldn’t take much to make them fully automatic and autonomous. That worries him. A lot. “The potential for lethal autonomous weapons systems to be rolled off the assembly line is here right now,” he says, “but the potential for lethal autonomous weapons systems to be deployed in an ethical way or to be designed in an ethical way is not, and is nowhere near ready.”

For Gariepy, the problem is one of international law, as well as programming. In war, there are situations in which the use of force might seem necessary, but might also put innocent bystanders at risk. How do we build killer robots that will make the correct decision in every situation? How do we even know what the correct decision would be?

We’re starting to see similar problems with autonomous vehicles. Say a dog darts across a highway. Does the robo-car swerve to avoid the dog but possibly risk the safety of its passengers? What if it isn’t a dog, but a child? Or a school bus? Now imagine a battle zone. “We can’t agree on how to implement those bits of guidance on the car,” Gariepy says. “And now what we’re actually talking about is taking that leap forward to building a system which has to decide on its own and when it’s going to preserve life and when it’s going to take lethal force.”


Thoughts?
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Rooster
Member Avatar
Legend
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
After reading that, I now like Clearpath Robotics... :)

Good on them for not building "autonomous killing machines". Unfortunately, other companies will.

Bad idea...
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Webster
Member Avatar
Wasatch Storyteller & Resident Forum Curmudgeon
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Rooster
Feb 17 2015, 10:32 AM
After reading that, I now like Clearpath Robotics... :)

Good on them for not building "autonomous killing machines". Unfortunately, other companies will.

Bad idea...
When I read the article, Rooster, all I could think of was Skynet from Terminator... :O :blink: :O :blink: :O
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
DrLeftover
No Avatar
Veteran Member
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
What could possibly go wrong?


Posted Image
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
« Previous Topic · Computers, Technology & The Internet · Next Topic »
Add Reply

Aquös by tiptopolive of the ZB Theme Zone