<story><title>Autonomous Weapons: An Open Letter from AI and Robotics Researchers</title><url>http://futureoflife.org/AI/open_letter_autonomous_weapons#</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>hackuser</author><text>I don&amp;#x27;t want to anyone to build autonomous weapons, but I don&amp;#x27;t want anyone to build nuclear weapons or any other weapons of war either; I don&amp;#x27;t see how to avoid it. If the choice is to either develop and deploy autonomous weapons or to risk having your population conquered and murdered by enemies that use them, then there is no choice.&lt;p&gt;Possibly, autonomous weapons like chemical weapons won&amp;#x27;t be important to victory, or like most biological weapons (AFAIK) they won&amp;#x27;t be cost-effective. But it&amp;#x27;s hard to imagine a human defeating a bot in a shootout; consider human stock market traders who try to compete with flash trading computers, for example. In fact, I wonder if some of the tech is the same for optimizing decision speed and accuracy.&lt;p&gt;Perhaps the best response by governments is to use their resources to develop autonomous weapons countermeasures, especially those [EDIT: i.e., those countermeasures] that can be acquired and utilized by those with few resources: Towns, governments in poor countries, and even individuals.&lt;p&gt;Also, my guess is that it&amp;#x27;s an area ripe for effective international standareds, treaties and law. All governments can agree that they don&amp;#x27;t want the chaos of proliferating, unregulated autonomous weapons and would work to enforce the rules.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>presidentender</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve had a shootout of sorts against a robot. The robot was armed with an airsoft gun, and I with a Glock pistol. The goal was not to kill the robot (since it was expensive and the owner and I had spent a long time getting the machine vision software workin) but to avoid being hit by the robot while engaging some other targets.&lt;p&gt;The course had to be carefully constructed to avoid an immediate robot victory, and the robot wasn&amp;#x27;t mobile. I wouldn&amp;#x27;t take the human side in a confrontation with an armed robot driven by a defense budget.&lt;p&gt;The disadvantage of a robot is limited mobility and difficulty distinguishing friends from foes, the same disadvantages which plague landmines. The advantage is that a robotic force could provide the same area denial as landmines without the long-term consequences: set 20% of the robots to come home and recharge every day, with a week-long battery life, and you&amp;#x27;ve got a very short period during which problems can happen.</text></comment>
<story><title>Autonomous Weapons: An Open Letter from AI and Robotics Researchers</title><url>http://futureoflife.org/AI/open_letter_autonomous_weapons#</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>hackuser</author><text>I don&amp;#x27;t want to anyone to build autonomous weapons, but I don&amp;#x27;t want anyone to build nuclear weapons or any other weapons of war either; I don&amp;#x27;t see how to avoid it. If the choice is to either develop and deploy autonomous weapons or to risk having your population conquered and murdered by enemies that use them, then there is no choice.&lt;p&gt;Possibly, autonomous weapons like chemical weapons won&amp;#x27;t be important to victory, or like most biological weapons (AFAIK) they won&amp;#x27;t be cost-effective. But it&amp;#x27;s hard to imagine a human defeating a bot in a shootout; consider human stock market traders who try to compete with flash trading computers, for example. In fact, I wonder if some of the tech is the same for optimizing decision speed and accuracy.&lt;p&gt;Perhaps the best response by governments is to use their resources to develop autonomous weapons countermeasures, especially those [EDIT: i.e., those countermeasures] that can be acquired and utilized by those with few resources: Towns, governments in poor countries, and even individuals.&lt;p&gt;Also, my guess is that it&amp;#x27;s an area ripe for effective international standareds, treaties and law. All governments can agree that they don&amp;#x27;t want the chaos of proliferating, unregulated autonomous weapons and would work to enforce the rules.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>guelo</author><text>It is easy to prevent it, have the UN ban it and provide incentives for countries to sign a treaty. This has worked for things like chemical and biological warfare. The key is to star the process now before generals get their hands on the technology so there won&amp;#x27;t be any pushback.</text></comment>