Austria called for new measures to control the use of artificial intelligence in weapons systems that could create so-called “killer robots” during a conference it hosted aimed at revitalising the generally stagnant discussions on the issue.
TakeAway Points:
- Austria called for new steps to control the use of artificial intelligence in weapons systems that could produce so-called “killer robots.”
- A number of attendees expressed concerns about the delay by the United Nations in producing tangible results on the issue.
- Drones in Ukraine are built with the ability to navigate independently of their operator in the event that signal-jamming technology disconnects them.
The Need to Control Killer Robots
As AI technology develops quickly, the possibility of weapons systems that may murder someone without the need for human intervention grows. This presents moral and legal issues that most nations agree need to be resolved quickly.
Alexander Schallenberg, Austrian Foreign Minister, mentioned in the meeting of non-governmental and international organisations as well as envoys from 143 countries that “we cannot let this moment pass without taking action. Now is the time to agree on international rules and norms to ensure human control.”
“At least let us make sure that the most profound and far-reaching decision, who lives and who dies, remains in the hands of humans and not of machines,” he added in an opening speech to the conference entitled “Humanity at the Crossroads: Autonomous Weapons Systems and the Challenge of Regulation”.
A number of attendees at the two-day conference in Vienna expressed concern that the window of opportunity for action was quickly closing after years of UN negotiations yielded few concrete outcomes.
“It is so important to act and to act very fast,” Mirjana Spoljaric, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, told a panel discussion at the conference.
“What we see today in the different contexts of violence are moral failures in the face of the international community. And we do not want to see such failures accelerate by giving the responsibility for violence, for the control over violence, over to machines and algorithms,” she added.
AI in Combat
The use of AI in combat is already underway. According to diplomats, drones in Ukraine are built with the ability to navigate independently of their operator in the event that signal-jamming technology disconnects them.
The Israeli military has reportedly begun employing artificial intelligence (AI) to help select targets for bombing in Gaza, according to a media report that the US announced this month.
“We have already seen AI making selection errors in ways both large and small, from misrecognizing a referee’s bald head as a football, to pedestrian deaths caused by self-driving cars unable to recognize jaywalking,” Jaan Tallinn, a software programmer and tech investor, said in a keynote speech.
“We must be extremely cautious about relying on the accuracy of these systems, whether in the military or civilian sectors.”
Killer Robots
Killer robots, also known as lethal autonomous weapons (LAWs), are a class of autonomous military systems that are capable of independently locating and engaging targets. Air, land, sea, underwater, and space are all possible operating environments for LAWs. As of 2018, the autonomy of existing systems was limited in that the final order to strike comes from a human—though some “defensive” systems are an exception.
The development of killer robot programmes emerged from exploiting AI to operate autonomously: subs, warships, fighter jets, swarming aerial drones, and ground combat vehicles to fight in tandem with human decision makers.
Military analysts claim that these robots, some of which are built to work in tandem with conventional ships, planes, and ground forces, already possess the capacity to significantly increase firepower and alter the nature of warfare.
Certain vehicles, like Ghost Shark, can carry out operations that would be fatal for any traditional military vehicle, including plunging hundreds of metres below the surface of the water.
The potential for AI systems to advise military leaders and assist them in making combat decisions by ingesting and analysing the massive amounts of data gathered from satellites, radars, sonar networks, signal intelligence, and internet traffic is maybe even more revolutionary than autonomous weapons.
