Autonomous weaponry, artificial intelligence enabled weaponry, machines with guns and the electronic means to pull the trigger are going to soon be coming into the world… the birth of Skynet is nigh.
But would it comfort you to know that one of the big bureaucrats in charge of the US military has promised that humans will be the ones pulling the trigger for these new fangled machines?
Weird thing to think about isn’t it… that it’s somehow more comforting for a human to kill another human than it is for a machine to kill one… weird.
Anyways…
The Pentagon is devising some whiz-bang autonomous weaponry, but Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Friday that the U.S. military would never use robotic systems that decided on their own when to kill.
Dozens of Defense Department labs and engineering centers are working on keeping the U.S. military “on the cutting edge” with weapons like swarming drones in the sea and air, Carter said.
But Carter told a conference at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies that the Pentagon will always ensure that a human pulls the trigger.
Source: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/national-security/article111052842.html
ARE YOU COMFORTED?
I am so comforted right now.
Just kidding.
I’m not at all.
Do you know why?
Because it’s pretty clear the US military has no real idea about what it’s military doctrine will be in an AI enabled world. I mean we don’t even know what machines we could make let alone the ones we will make… how would they know what their capabilities will be and how they should be utilised? They don’t really…
Honestly this is just one of those bland not necessarily truthful statements people make to stop others from becoming concerned.