Military Automated killer robots

[WhiteFeather]

Can someone say Skynet? sorry, watched terminator 3 "rise of the machine" on TV the other night

Article points out a flaw that easily could be used against US for big bang for little bucks by using machines to commit attacks.......


http://www.95news.com/military-automated-killer-robots/

Military Automated killer robots

PARIS (AFP) — Increasingly autonomous, gun-totting robots developed for warfare could easily fall into the hands of terrorists and may one day unleash a robot arms race, a top expert on artificial intelligence told AFP.

“They pose a threat to humanity,” said University of Sheffield professor Noel Sharkey ahead of a keynote address Wednesday before Britain’s Royal United Services Institute.

Intelligent machines deployed on battlefields around the world — from mobile grenade launchers to rocket-firing drones — can already identify and lock onto targets without human help.

There are more than 4,000 US military robots on the ground in Iraq, as well as unmanned aircraft that have clocked hundreds of thousands of flight hours.

The first three armed combat robots fitted with large-caliber machine guns deployed to Iraq last summer, manufactured by US arms maker Foster-Miller, proved so successful that 80 more are on order, said Sharkey.

But up to now, a human hand has always been required to push the button or pull the trigger.

It we are not careful, he said, that could change.

Military leaders “are quite clear that they want autonomous robots as soon as possible, because they are more cost-effective and give a risk-free war,” he said.

Several countries, led by the United States, have already invested heavily in robot warriors developed for use on the battlefield.

South Korea and Israel both deploy armed robot border guards, while China, India, Russia and Britain have all increased the use of military robots.

Washington plans to spend four billion dollars by 2010 on unmanned technology systems, with total spending expected rise to 24 billion, according to the Department of Defense’s Unmanned Systems Roadmap 2007-2032, released in December.

James Canton, an expert on technology innovation and CEO of the Institute for Global Futures, predicts that deployment within a decade of detachments that will include 150 soldiers and 2,000 robots.

The use of such devices by terrorists should be a serious concern, said Sharkey.

Captured robots would not be difficult to reverse engineer, and could easily replace suicide bombers as the weapon-of-choice. “I don’t know why that has not happened already,” he said.

But even more worrisome, he continued, is the subtle progression from the semi-autonomous military robots deployed today to fully independent killing machines.

“I have worked in artificial intelligence for decades, and the idea of a robot making decisions about human termination terrifies me,” Sharkey said.

Ronald Arkin of Georgia Institute of Technology, who has worked closely with the US military on robotics, agrees that the shift towards autonomy will be gradual.

But he is not convinced that robots don’t have a place on the front line.

“Robotics systems may have the potential to out-perform humans from a perspective of the laws of war and the rules of engagement,” he told a conference on technology in warfare at Stanford University last month.

The sensors of intelligent machines, he argued, may ultimately be better equipped to understand an environment and to process information. “And there are no emotions that can cloud judgement, such as anger,” he added.

Nor is there any inherent right to self-defence.

For now, however, there remain several barriers to the creation and deployment of Terminator-like killing machines.

Some are technical. Teaching a computer-driven machine — even an intelligent one — how to distinguish between civilians and combatants, or how to gauge a proportional response as mandated by the Geneva Conventions, is simply beyond the reach of artificial intelligence today.

But even if technical barriers are overcome, the prospect of armies increasingly dependent on remotely-controlled or autonomous robots raises a host of ethical issues that have barely been addressed.

Arkin points out that the US Department of Defense’s 230 billion dollar Future Combat Systems programme — the largest military contract in US history — provides for three classes of aerial and three land-based robotics systems.

“But nowhere is there any consideration of the ethical implications of the weaponisation of these systems,” he said.

For Sharkey, the best solution may be an outright ban on autonomous weapons systems. “We have to say where we want to draw the line and what we want to do — and then get an international agreement,” he said.

[MichaelJ]

If they run on Windows - no problem due to the BSOD.
If they run on Apple Software- the robots will be trendy and cut themselves while listening to the Jonas Brothers.

[Seventy4Blazer]

i guess my job security just started going down the pipes... oh, wait, i have never killed anyone... just my helicopters... lol

[reichebrown]

If they run on Windows - no problem due to the BSOD.
If they run on Apple Software- the robots will be trendy and cut themselves while listening to the Jonas Brothers.

Hey, i am writing this reply on a Mac... I have never listened to the Jonas Brothers nor have I ever cut myself intentionally.

[LorDiego01]

Hey, i am writing this reply on a Mac... I have never listened to the Jonas Brothers nor have I ever cut myself intentionally.

Its only a matter of time....

[reichebrown]

I am getting kind of trendy.. I did just buy a Glock

Its ok to be trendy sometimes. Does your cell phone have a shot timer on it? My iphone does!


P.S. - you know what is funny my auto spell check on my Mac thinks iphone is misspelled!

[TaePo]

interim solution:

Remotely controled bots of various sizes and capability.

Make the software run on X-box, PS3 et al (and of course PCs).

Tell the gaming world it is a new realistic first person shooter.

Voila, thousands of remote users to play.

And when someone signs off of the server, it puts someone else in from the queue.

Your classes could be: Reclamation Bot/Retrieve damaged bots, Sniper bot, RPG bot, MG bot, Bomber Bot / Anti Personnel Mine. Then you could have naval/water bots and Bots for the air for recon and bombing/strafing.

But, I must admit, it would screw with the enemy's morale. They would have to fend off thousands of Bots and then face actual human soldiers afterward.

[Willtallica]

Well I'm sure I'm not the only one who has wondered about the wonders of a few cheap RC cars with a few sticks of TNT together, nut on the other hand just imagining seeing a drone gun before me from like the game goldeneye scares da day lights.

[ScaredOnce]

If they run on Windows - no problem due to the BSOD.
If they run on Apple Software- the robots will be trendy and cut themselves while listening to the Jonas Brothers.

First and foremost, this was absolutely hilarious... Rep sent as deserved!

Can someone say Skynet? sorry, watched terminator 3 "rise of the machine" on TV the other night

Article points out a flaw that easily could be used against US for big bang for little bucks by using machines to commit attacks.......


http://www.95news.com/military-automated-killer-robots/

And this is absolutely awesome. Remember, with capability comes the need for control. Else, any technology of gravity becomes unwieldy. Think Oppenheimer... The sub-tech and supporting tech behind this type of research is crucial, not only to the progression of US interests, but to the future of mankind. The US should have never pulled the Apollo funding and NASA should spend just as much as DoD. I mean, maybe all this green bs and oil-$ issues would have been mitigated... who knows




Not that I wanna cause "Judgment Day" or anything...

[RaisedByWolves]

Your classes could be: Reclamation Bot/Retrieve damaged bots, Sniper bot, RPG bot, MG bot, Bomber Bot / Anti Personnel Mine. Then you could have naval/water bots and Bots for the air for recon and bombing/strafing.

But, I must admit, it would screw with the enemy's morale. They would have to fend off thousands of Bots and then face actual human soldiers afterward.

You forgot "Camper Bot"




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