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Slaughterbots: Stop Autonomous Weapons [video]

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Re: Slaughterbots: Stop Autonomous Weapons [video]

#81

Post by espadrine »

narrator wrote: post #18

It's like WWI all over again. In WWI, people went happily off to war thinking it's going to be nice and heroic and adventurous like the good old days and they all get slaughtered in a pathetic pointless way in a blink of an eye by newly developed automated war machinery. The first AI War is going to be a really brutal wakeup call. The part in sci-fi where anyone actually has to aim to kill an enemy was a big romantic…

> The first AI War is going to be a really brutal wakeup call

Strange. The video and everyone here keeps talking about this as a scary future dystopia, while Pakistan and many other countries have been living in it for years.

Drone strikes are exactly what the video describes: surgical precision attacks from machines with automatic weapons that the targets couldn't defend themselves from, used by both governments and terrorists, and routinely relying on mass surveillance for targeting.

The weakly conveyed message of the video was that there needs to be a human pressing the trigger so that they can appreciate whether the act conflicts with their values, but we have millennia of evidence that humans can act mindlessly too.

Re: Slaughterbots: Stop Autonomous Weapons [video]

#82

Post by Gracana »

fastball wrote: post #77
XorNot wrote: post #55

The message of this film feels extremely confused - probably because it's trying to single-mindedly push an agenda rather then explore the problem space. In a world where apparently drone-swarms are this cheap...what, no one ever developed counter-drones? It's the reason grey goo isn't a realistic scenario for nanotechnology: the goo has to replicate, whereas all the counter-goo has to do is kill it. Same issue: a wo…

I would just have an EMP wrist watch or something. Wouldn't take much of a pulse to knock out one of these bad boys.

If you had an "EMP wristwatch" that could disable even a pocket calculator (without blowing your hand off), I'd be impressed.

Re: Slaughterbots: Stop Autonomous Weapons [video]

#83

Post by wnkrshm »

oliwarner wrote: post #80
int_19h wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't even need robots for that. You just need an advanced scope on a rifle that can still be transported by a human, and the human is also the one that identifies targets. Check this out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0oGZ4TZr5k Now, we're not yet at the point where it's cost-effective to give every infantryman a thing like this - the scope alone costs more than most high-end sniper rifles. But costs will go…

I have to wonder how hard it would really be to detect and target somebody whose scope is laser-ranging and has wifi. These seem like tactical giveaways. That's not to say this sort of technology couldn't be useful, but putting active broadcasting equipment on your gun is going to backfire in next generation warfare.

It's trivial to figure out where a ranging laser comes from, it's just that asymmetric warfare enables you to use them with impunity

Re: Slaughterbots: Stop Autonomous Weapons [video]

#84

Post by Joeri »

jononor wrote: post #74
nradov wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would you write such a treaty? Limit the CPU speed of weapons systems or something? Totally unenforceable.

Could forbid weapons to take kill actions themselves, each instance having to be activated by a human operator. Could also forbid self-replication of weaponized robots.

If you deploy automated drone factories that send out millions of these things, and then have an army of people all pressing "kill" buttons as if they were doing a quick-fire arcade game, without even seeing what they were killing, it would comply with the rules you describe.

Re: Slaughterbots: Stop Autonomous Weapons [video]

#85

Post by RobertoG »

reificator wrote: post #25
narrator wrote: post #18

It's like WWI all over again. In WWI, people went happily off to war thinking it's going to be nice and heroic and adventurous like the good old days and they all get slaughtered in a pathetic pointless way in a blink of an eye by newly developed automated war machinery. The first AI War is going to be a really brutal wakeup call. The part in sci-fi where anyone actually has to aim to kill an enemy was a big romantic…

> The first AI War is going to be a really brutal wakeup call. I know. I thought I was decent at strategy games, but AI War shook that confidence to the bone. I don't think I've ever won a game. http://store.steampowered.com/app/40400/AI_War_Fleet_Command... On a serious note, you're absolutely right. Sci-Fi has been lying to us for a very long time and I don't think people are ready to face what the reality will be.…

"Sci-Fi has been lying to us for a very long time [..]"

That's totally unfair. I think you have been reading the wrong science fiction.

Re: Slaughterbots: Stop Autonomous Weapons [video]

#86

Post by rqs »

jononor wrote: post #74
nradov wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would you write such a treaty? Limit the CPU speed of weapons systems or something? Totally unenforceable.

Could forbid weapons to take kill actions themselves, each instance having to be activated by a human operator. Could also forbid self-replication of weaponized robots.

Do you still remember The Three Laws of Robotics[0]? Not too many people still mentions it now days.

Killing AI is not the same problem with nuclear weapon. Because AI weapon is far easier to make compare to nuclear one. Technically, you can do it right now with your DJI drone, all it takes is just to program it to do some automatic control.

So I'm not quite optimistic about any attempt on limit those kind of weapons base on current condition we are in.

[0] https://www.auburn.edu/~vestmon/robotics.html

Re: Slaughterbots: Stop Autonomous Weapons [video]

#87

Post by yorwba »

Joeri wrote: post #84
jononor wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could forbid weapons to take kill actions themselves, each instance having to be activated by a human operator. Could also forbid self-replication of weaponized robots.

If you deploy automated drone factories that send out millions of these things, and then have an army of people all pressing "kill" buttons as if they were doing a quick-fire arcade game, without even seeing what they were killing, it would comply with the rules you describe.

Those rules would be enforced by humans, and humans don't tend to be very impressed by attempts to follow the letter of the law while violating its spirit.

Laws as written have all kinds of obvious loopholes, but they are intentionally vague enough that a judge can look at your "obvious loophole" and decide that you are in violation anyway.

Re: Slaughterbots: Stop Autonomous Weapons [video]

#88

Post by daxorid »

sorokod wrote: post #48
daxorid wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another option is that some of us really look forward to real-life sentry gun turrets; we actually want this future.

Systems such as Phalanx CISW with fully automatic mode have been available for ages.

Yes, but to clarify, I meant access by civilians, given the availability of cheap FLIR systems, stepper motor rigs, and OpenCV processing.

Re: Slaughterbots: Stop Autonomous Weapons [video]

#89

Post by jononor »

Joeri wrote: post #84
jononor wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could forbid weapons to take kill actions themselves, each instance having to be activated by a human operator. Could also forbid self-replication of weaponized robots.

If you deploy automated drone factories that send out millions of these things, and then have an army of people all pressing "kill" buttons as if they were doing a quick-fire arcade game, without even seeing what they were killing, it would comply with the rules you describe.

Sure. At least it cannot be done without the active participation of humans. Who hat least may object, though there are many ways to attempt to avoid that from happening. One being deluding them into thinking it is just a game.

Re: Slaughterbots: Stop Autonomous Weapons [video]

#90

Post by QAPereo »

danieltillett wrote: post #49
narrator wrote: post #18

It's like WWI all over again. In WWI, people went happily off to war thinking it's going to be nice and heroic and adventurous like the good old days and they all get slaughtered in a pathetic pointless way in a blink of an eye by newly developed automated war machinery. The first AI War is going to be a really brutal wakeup call. The part in sci-fi where anyone actually has to aim to kill an enemy was a big romantic…

The most amazing thing about the Great War is not that people started out like this, but they continued once they knew the truth. We are very unlikely to get as wakeup call after any AI War because we will all be dead.

Maybe if something develops intelligence and tool use after us, they can do a better job with it.
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