The conclusion that the world’s leading experts on weaponry reached last weekend at a convention in the Swiss Alps is that robotic weaponry must not become automated. They believe that a connection between humans and robots should be kept at all times because the machines cannot be programmed to take into consideration moral or ethical factors.
Robotic Weaponry Must Not Become Automated
When asked why they have reached the conclusion that robotic weaponry must not become automated they answered that the human factor is decisive when it comes to robots and Artificial Intelligence.
Humans have empathy, morality, compassion, they are able to weigh in things differently than a machine does. People can tell the difference between right and wrong and all the shades of grey in the background.
If robots become fully automated, if they are given full control they could annihilate the human population because of a faulty update in the system, or because they will never be able to fully comprehend human behavior and that could lead to serious misunderstandings.
A drone that is flown by a human pilot could cause damage only if the human behind it decides to, but a fully automated drone that is programmed to take its own decisions, a fully functioning robot, could interpret in a poor way data collected from the field and end up killing a lot of innocent people due to an error, or a line of protocol that was written poorly when the drone was programmed.
Robotic Weaponry Could Be As Dangerous As Biological Weaponry
The United States of America had in its possession biological weaponry. But they were destroyed because the officials of the country realized that if such a weapon exists there will always be somebody who will wish to use it. The same principle could be applied to robotic weaponry.
If they will become fully automated they will pose a risk as high as biological weaponry, even higher if you take into consideration the human conscience and ability to discern.
It seems that ethical reasons are not the only ones that support the claim that robotic weaponry must not become automated, but plenty of logical arguments have been brought to support the idea.
We Are Very Close To Building the First Fully Autonomous Robot
Famous astrophysicist Stephen Hawking has declared that humankind is very close to creating the first autonomous robot. And while this is good news as far as technological and AI development goes, he also says that this kind of progress could ultimately lead to the end of the world as we know it.
Image source: www.starburstmagazine.com
