Cruisers of the US Navy is equipped with combat management system “aegis” designed to track and destroy enemy anti-ship missiles and aircraft. Israel has developed drone kamikaze “Harpy”, which automatically detects and destroys radar emitters. The border between North and South Korea guard patrol killer robots.
They all operate autonomously — without human intervention.
The first version of the robots-terminators are already a reality. However, until now there are no global agreements that limit their use. They use their artificial intelligence to determine goals and decide whether to attack in a split second.
Technology is still imperfect, but they are becoming more accurate and deadly. There are very few time when, thanks to the revolution in the classification and recognition of images, these systems will exceed the capabilities of the average soldier.
But are we really ready for this? Do we want Robo-cops are guarding our cities? The consequences of this, in the end, can be very similar to the scenarios of a gloomy science fiction movie.
Currently, the military claim that they want only people made decisions in matters of life and death, and all the automated systems fall under this category – they are equipped with a remote control. But what happens if all countries, without exception, will begin to develop their own Autonomous technology of killing?
Of course, you can console yourself with the fact that robots could do better to fulfill the most basic laws of war and thus to comply with basic rules such as “don’t shoot women and children”.
But next on the agenda will be the question of subordination. Who will be responsible if something goes wrong? If the weapons system has problems in design and technology, the responsibility lies with the manufacturer. If the system was used without approval, it will answer all the commander’s staff. Responsibility will be as challenging, as the use of conventional weapons. But there is a much more important question: “If the decision to take human life would be taken by car?”
Thus, the automatic weapons will destroy human dignity. The machine can make any decision, but will never consider the consequences of their actions. People can program her or show her examples to derive the formula for making these decisions, but those decisions will be. Even if the decision is made subject to the written laws of war, even in this case, the machine will not be able to take into account the countless subtleties.
In addition, you need to consider that with the steady introduction of military technologies in civil life, the military system can be deployed in the normal cities.
The advantage of synthetic systems is that they do not have such destructive emotions as anger. But they do not have positive emotions such as empathy and compassion.
The only way to avoid intolerable situations is the creation of and adherence to an international ban on lethal automatic weapons systems and to achieve this unilaterally impossible.
Precedents of such prohibitions already exist. The society opposes chemical and laser weapons. Unfortunately, it is not prohibited remains a nuclear weapon, although using it may violate many international laws, limiting civilian casualties, and threatens long-term consequences. The main constraint to its use is the fear of the inevitable massive retaliation.
It is hoped that the governments of all countries of the world will make every effort to sign a multilateral Treaty which will eliminate the temptation to create an army of killer robots.
Robotics and artificial intelligence have great potential to help society – from the search for survivors during natural disasters to the search for new cancer treatments. And only from us will depend on whether we use its potential to build peace and improve our lives, or get bogged down in endless war and devalue human life.
