[E-rundbrief] Info 1458 - Autonomous Weapons:- Open Letter of researchers

[Matthias Reichl]

E-Rundbrief - Info 1458 - Autonomous Weapons: an Open Letter from AI 
(Artidicial Intelligence) & Robotics Researchers.

Bad Ischl, 29.7.2015

Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit

www.begegnungszentrum.at

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Autonomous Weapons: an Open Letter from AI & Robotics Researchers

This open letter was announced July 28 at the opening of the IJCAI 
2015 conference on July 28. Journalists who wish to see the press 
release may contact Toby Walsh. Hosting, signature verification and 
list management are supported by FLI; for administrative questions 
about this letter, please contact tegmark at mit.edu.

Autonomous Weapons: an Open Letter from AI & Robotics Researchers

July 28 2015

Autonomous weapons select and engage targets without human 
intervention. They might include, for example, armed quadcopters that 
can search for and eliminate people meeting certain pre-defined 
criteria, but do not include cruise missiles or remotely piloted 
drones for which humans make all targeting decisions. Artificial 
Intelligence (AI) technology has reached a point where the deployment 
of such systems is — practically if not legally — 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.

Many arguments have been made for and against autonomous weapons, for 
example that replacing human soldiers by machines is good by reducing 
casualties for the owner but bad by thereby lowering the threshold for 
going to battle. The key question for humanity today is whether to 
start a global AI arms race or to prevent it from starting. If any 
major military power pushes ahead with AI weapon development, a global 
arms race is virtually inevitable, and the endpoint of this 
technological trajectory is obvious: autonomous weapons will become 
the Kalashnikovs of tomorrow. Unlike nuclear weapons, they require no 
costly or hard-to-obtain raw materials, so they will become ubiquitous 
and cheap for all significant military powers to mass-produce. It will 
only be a matter of time until they appear on the black market and in 
the hands of terrorists, dictators wishing to better control their 
populace, warlords wishing to perpetrate ethnic cleansing, etc. 
Autonomous weapons are ideal for tasks such as assassinations, 
destabilizing nations, subduing populations and selectively killing a 
particular ethnic group. We therefore believe that a military AI arms 
race would not be beneficial for humanity. There are many ways in 
which AI can make battlefields safer for humans, especially civilians, 
without creating new tools for killing people.

Just as most chemists and biologists have no interest in building 
chemical or biological weapons, most AI researchers have no interest 
in building AI weapons — and do not want others to tarnish their field 
by doing so, potentially creating a major public backlash against AI 
that curtails its future societal benefits. Indeed, chemists and 
biologists have broadly supported international agreements that have 
successfully prohibited chemical and biological weapons, just as most 
physicists supported the treaties banning space-based nuclear weapons 
and blinding laser weapons.

In summary, we believe that AI has great potential to benefit humanity 
in many ways, and that the goal of the field should be to do so. 
Starting a military AI arms race is a bad idea, and should be 
prevented by a ban on offensive autonomous weapons beyond meaningful 
human control.

Autonomous Weapons: an Open Letter from AI & Robotics Researchers 
[Future of Life Institute]
http://thefutureoflife.org/AI/open_letter_autonomous_weapons#signatories

http://tinyurl.com/awletter

Links:

Musk, Wozniak and Hawking urge ban on warfare AI and autonomous weapons
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jul/27/musk-wozniak-hawking-ban-ai-autonomous-weapons

Campaign to Stop Killer-Robots:
http://www.stopkillerrobots.org/


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Matthias Reichl, Pressesprecher/ press speaker,
Begegnungszentrum fuer aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
Center for Encounter and active Non-Violence
Wolfgangerstr. 26, A-4820 Bad Ischl, Austria,
fon: +43 6132 24590, Informationen/ informations,
Impressum in: http://www.begegnungszentrum.at
Spenden-Konto Nr. 0600-970305 (Blz. 20314) Sparkasse Salzkammergut,
Geschäftsstelle Pfandl
IBAN: AT922031400600970305 BIC: SKBIAT21XXX

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Honoured by the (Austrian) "Journalism-Award from below 2010"