Gigaom AI Minute – January 21

Transcript

In a previous AI Minute, I looked at the issues around building robots that could make autonomous kill decisions. Now I want to continue that by asking, "Should we build such weapons?"

The threats that these weapons systems would be built to counter are, in fact, real. In 2014, the UN had a meeting on what it calls Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems. The report that came out of that meeting maintains that these weapons are being sought by terrorists who will likely get their hands on them. Additionally, there is no shortage of weapons systems currently in development around the world that utilize artificial intelligence to varying degrees.

Russia is developing a robot that can detect and shoot a human that is four miles away, using a combination of radar, thermal imaging and video cameras. A South Korean company is already selling a $40 million automatic turret which, in accordance with international law, shouts out, "Turn around and leave, or we will shoot" message to any potential target within two miles. It requires a human to okay the kill decision, but this was a feature that was only added later due to customer demand. It turns out virtually every country on the planet with a sizable military budget, probably about two dozen, is working on developing AI-powered weapons.