Gigaom AI Minute – January 23

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In this episode, Byron talks about the difficulty of banning autonomous weapons.

Transcript

In prior AI Minutes, we've talked about autonomous weapon systems. Whether we should build them, whether we will build them, and today I would like to talk about the difficulty in banning them.

How do you prohibit those weapons, even if, for instance, there was a collective will all around the world to do so? Part of the reason that nuclear weapons were able to be contained was because they're very straightforward. An explosion was either caused by a nuclear detonation, or it was not. There is no grey area.

Robots with AI, on the other hand, are as grey as grey gets. How much AI would be needed to be present before the weapon was deemed to be illegal? The difference between a landmine and a terminator is only by manner of degree.

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