well, they are trying to block killer robots...

Starlogger

http://money.cnn.com/2017/08/21/technology/elon-musk-killer-robot-un-ban/index.html?iid=ob_article_organicsidebar_expansion

Something Real

STARLOGGER - What an interesting situation. Mankind shall always be at war with itself, yet we desire to limit the loss of life which develops as a direct result of that warfare. Shall we continue to shed one-another's blood - or shall we have machines battle in our stead? For me, the answer is this: Man is an animal - a natural creation. War is simply the name we give to the natural drive to conquer and claim which exists throughout all advanced animal life. I say let us continue our battle without evolved machinery. Even so, this is simply my desire. I have, and always shall, respect the views of others on such matters. :)

VivisectedEngineer

There is something especially funny about this to me, because I once had a dream that Elon Musk showed up at David 8's birthday and called him "the next big visionary".

But, in real life, Musk is probably right about banning weaponized A.I.

This topic exemplifies the core purpose of Sci-Fi: to give humanity an "It's A Wonderful Life"-esque glimpse of possible futures before they come to fruition, so we can make informed decisions before it's too late.  

cuponator3000

It's tough. I think it is a dangerous road to go down (creating AI weapons) and since I am a scifi nerd I feel like it's wrong! "I wasn't built to serve and neither were you." Just making these machines to go to war and probably be destroyed is messed up. 

Also, even though we are trated to pretty outlandish scenarios in a lot of scifi films, the risk of these autonomous beings going rogue is a pretty real worry. At least once the world really gets into the technology. It is still pretty young at this point, I believe. 

So, I don't know. Do everything possible to try and prevent or account for the pitfalls with this technology. I don't see a way to ban people from using weaponized AI and I don't see a future in which it doesn't happen. 

Timiteh

I agree with Elon Musk on this point. In fact i would go even further than him and be very cautious about anything AI related. What if an advanced no military AI civil finds out that it is superior to human in any possible way, and that human are either a threat for him or holding it back, what would prevent the so called AI to try anything possible to get rid of us ?

By for example developping deadly nanobots or triggering a nuclear war ?

We are talking of non human intelligence with limitless potential which could be no cluttered by moral or any kind of mercy !

BigDave

I think we are a long way off from it being a Threat...

As far as to Mankind, but evolving AI to make decisions on the Battle Field is very risky, a Computer Program should not be allowed to make such decisions on Who is to Die, What and When to attack.

Drones are Piloted by Humans, and i think once we Evolve AI so that Drones can be Autonomous we have to seriously consider the implications of this, as it is Human Emotions and Moral Compass that determines when to pull the Trigger, and a lot of Collateral damage is via Human Error, something Autonomous drones would reduce, but then when Faced with a Program to Destroy a Target and then some Innocent people are at the location (Human Shields) that Intelligence suggested their would be none...  A Human could have the option to Abort... a AI would maybe proceed with the Mission.

But indeed once we get to the Point of Creating Advanced Computers like MUTHUR or the Star Trek Computers and Androids like David or Data...  the risk of these AI becoming Sentient and seeing themselves as Superior to Humans could indeed be the Biggest Threat to Mankind.

This is something explored in the Terminator Franchise, and The Matrix...

And it appears this could be something that Ridley Scott is fond of exploring within the Franchise.

ridinvail

BIG DAVE WE ARE CLOSER THEN YOU THINK. JUST LOOK UP OSSURS MIND CONTROLLED TECHNOLOGY. WE ARE ALREADY MIXING ORGANIC WITH BIO MECHANICS. MY BEST FRIEND LOST HIS LEGS IN AFGHANISTAN. HE CAN NOW RUN FASTER THEN I CAN. I AM A FORMER TRACK AND FIELD ATHLETE, SO IM NOT SUPER SLOW. HIS LEGS ARE WORTH 2.7 MILLION DOLLARS WHICH EXPLAINS A LOT. HE IS SENDING ME SOME PICS TO SHOW YOU. I WILL UPLOAD THEM TONIGHT.

dk

"autonomous weapons systems ... have a very real potential to cause significant harm to innocent people along with global instability," and this differs from regular people how?

We also fly missile strikes from afar and it looks pretty much like a video game to the operator.

Starlogger

Ah, we have spam cooking here....

Something Real

DK - I agree. If war was not so impersonal - forced combatants to behold what they have wrought with their hands - perhaps our appetite for battle would abate to a degree.