AI will make a global arms race ‘virtually inevitable’: Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk lead 1,000 robotics experts in call for ban on automated smart weapons
The warning was made in an open letter by the Future of Life Institute
Letter predicts that AI weapons could soon appear on the black market
Autonomous weapons are ideal for tasks such as assassinations, it says
They can also be used for ‘selectively killing a particular ethnic group’
Other signatories of the letter include Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Skype co-founder Jaan Talinn and linguist and activist Noam Chomsky
By ELLIE ZOLFAGHARIFARD
DAILYMAIL.COM
28 July 2015
Professor Stephen Hawking and Tesla founder Elon Musk led 1,000 robotics experts in an open letter today warning that ‘Autonomous weapons will become the Kalashnikovs of tomorrow’.
The strongly-worded letter calls for an outright ban on ‘offensive autonomous weapons beyond meaningful human control’ in an effort to prevent a global AI arms race.
The experts point out that, unlike nuclear weapons, AI weapons require no costly or hard-to-obtain raw materials.
This means they will become ubiquitous and cheap for all significant military powers to mass-produce.
‘If any major military power pushes ahead with AI weapon development, a global arms race is virtually inevitable,’the letter states.
The authors predict that it will only be a matter of time until smart weapons appear on the black market and in the hands of terrorists, dictators and warlords.
The claim AI technology has reached a point where the deployment of such systems is now feasible within years, rather than decades.
‘Autonomous weapons are ideal for tasks such as assassinations, destabilising nations, subduing populations and selectively killing a particular ethnic group,’ the letter states.
‘We therefore believe that a military AI arms race would not be beneficial for humanity.’
It adds that there are many ways in which AI can make battlefields safer for humans, especially civilians, without creating new tools for killing people.
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