Expert Expresses Concerns over Killer Robots

Professor Noel Sharkey, an expert in the AI and robotics technology field, has expressed extreme concern over current developments in military bots. Professor at the University of Sheffield, he has asked for an international debate to be held to discuss current advances and the concerning consequences that could occur.

Talking to a gathering in London, Professor Sharkey expressed warnings that current technology does not allow for robots and AI’s to distinguish enemy from ally, and that the work needed to allow such an artificial system could take 50 years. He said “Robots that can decide where to kill, who to kill and when to kill is high on all the military agendas.” He added that US military ethics concerning robots were highly misguided because they were “all based on artificial intelligence, and the military have a strange view of artificial intelligence based on science fiction.”

Explaining that he wasn’t acting as an anti-war protestor, but simply a concerned citizen, he said that even though military use of robot technology was increasing, “collateral damage” hadn’t decreased. There were 60 cases of robot attacks in Pakistan from January 2006 to April 2009, and reiterating the case for danger to the general public, Professor Sharkey said that though these attacks had killed 14 al-Qaeda, they had also taken the lives of 687 civilians.

However, a recent report by the US Air Force found that robotic attack planes were still favourable. The “Unmanned Aircraft Systems Flight Plan 2009-2047” report said that “Advances in AI will enable systems to make combat decision and act within legal and policy constraints without necessarily requiring human input.”

Tagged as: AI, Aircraft, Killer Robots