The time to fight the machines is now. Once they get up and running, become self aware, that’s when it’s too late. Or so figures a new group called The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots. I, for one, will welcome our new lethal mechanical overlords. CSKR, though, has looked around the modern battlefield — with its predator drones and ground-roaming TALONs — and decided the time to nip the evolution of deadly autonomous automatons in the bud is now. As always, huffingtonpost.co.uk has the whole story: “The campaign’s leader is Jody Williams, who won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for helping to ban anti-personnel landmines,” . . .
Jody, the Paulette Revere of the coming android invasion, sees her group attracting plenty of grass roots support:
“As people learn about our campaign, they will flock to it. The public conscience is horrified to learn about this possible advance in weapons systems. People don’t want killer robots out there.”
Her little collaborative is ostensibly OK with weapons where a human has to make the kill/no-kill call. It’s leaving the life-or-death decision up to an algorithm that has them concerned. So, a Roomba is OK. Robocop, not so much. Well, maybe not this Roomba.
One of the CSKR member organizations is Human Rights Watch, who released a report on the as yet non-existent problem.
“Fully autonomous weapons do not yet exist, and major powers, including the United States, have not made a decision to deploy them. But high-tech militaries are developing or have already deployed precursors that illustrate the push toward greater autonomy for machines on the battlefield. The United States is a leader in this technological development. Several other countries – including China, Germany, Israel, South Korea, Russia, and the United Kingdom – have also been involved.”
So whether they’re made by Cyberdyne or General Dynamics, CSKR is against ’em. Time to tool up to fight the death machine onslaught? If so, with what?