We’ve recently heard way too many stories about the dangers of chimpanzees, but what about the dangers of future “life-forms”, like robots? Daily Tech points us to a recent US Navy funded report that presses the need for caution in designing any kind of robot designed for defense. Complex and semi-autonomous artificial intelligence powered robots could pose very real dangers if not designed carefully to differentiate between “good” and “bad” targets. The US Army encountered a harrowing situation earlier this year, when a software malfunction caused war robots to aim (but not fire) at friendly targets.
Daily Tech explains:
Robots gone rogue killing their human masters is rich science fiction fodder, but could it become reality? Some researchers are beginning to ask that question as artificial intelligence advances continue, and the world’s high-tech nations begin to deploy war-robots to the battlefront. Currently, the U.S. armed forces use many robots, but they all ultimately have a human behind the trigger. However, there are many plans to develop and deploy fully independent solutions as the technology improves.
Some mistakenly believe that such robots would only be able to operate within a defined set of behaviors. Describes Patrick Lin, the chief compiler of a new U.S. Navy-funded report, “There is a common misconception that robots will do only what we have programmed them to do. Unfortunately, such a belief is sorely outdated, harking back to a time when . . . programs could be written and understood by a single person.”
…He says the key to avoiding robotic rebellion is to include “learning” logic which teaches the robot the rights and wrongs of ethical warfare. This logic would be mixed with traditional rules based programming.
Daily Tech: “New Navy-funded Report Warns of War Robots Going “Terminator”
[via Engadget]
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