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Amazon, Microsoft and Intel may be putting world at risk through killer robot developments, study says

The report surveyed major players from the tech sector about their stance on lethal autonomous weapons.

AMAZON, MICROSOFT AND Intel are among leading tech companies putting the world at risk through killer robot development, according to a report that surveyed major players from the sector about their stance on lethal autonomous weapons.

Dutch NGO Pax ranked 50 companies by three criteria: whether they were developing technology that could be relevant to deadly AI, whether they were working on related military projects, and if they had committed to abstaining from contributing in the future.

“Why are companies like Microsoft and Amazon not denying that they’re currently developing these highly controversial weapons, which could decide to kill people without direct human involvement?” said Frank Slijper, lead author of the report published this week.

The use of AI to allow weapon systems to autonomously select and attack targets has sparked ethical debates in recent years, with critics warning they would jeopardise international security and herald a third revolution in warfare after gunpowder and the atomic bomb.

A panel of government experts debated policy options regarding lethal autonomous weapons at a meeting of the United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons in Geneva yesterday.

Google, which last year published guiding principles eschewing AI for use in weapons systems, was among seven companies found to be engaging in “best practice” in the analysis that spanned 12 countries, as was Japan’s Softbank, best known for its humanoid Pepper robot.

22 companies were of “medium concern,” while 21 fell into a “high concern” category, notably Amazon and Microsoft who are both bidding for a $10 billion Pentagon contract to provide the cloud infrastructure for the US military.

Others in the “high concern” group include Palantir, a company with roots in a CIA-backed venture capital organisation that was awarded an $800 million contract to develop an AI system “that can help soldiers analyse a combat zone in real time”.

“Autonomous weapons will inevitably become scalable weapons of mass destruction, because if the human is not in the loop, then a single person can launch a million weapons or a hundred million weapons,” Stuart Russell, a computer science professor at the University of California, Berkeley told AFP.

“The fact is that autonomous weapons are going to be developed by corporations, and in terms of a campaign to prevent autonomous weapons from becoming widespread, they can play a very big role,” he added.

The development of AI for military purposes has triggered debates and protest within the industry: last year Google declined to renew a Pentagon contract called Project Maven, which used machine learning to distinguish people and objects in drone videos.

It also dropped out of the running for Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI), the cloud contract that Amazon and Microsoft are hoping to bag.

The report noted that Microsoft employees had also voiced their opposition to a US Army contract for an augmented reality headset, HoloLens, that aims at “increasing lethality” on the battlefield.

What they might look like

According to Russell, ”anything that’s currently a weapon, people are working on autonomous versions, whether it’s tanks, fighter aircraft, or submarines”.

Israel’s Harpy is an autonomous drone that already exists, “loitering” in a target area and selecting sites to hit.

More worrying still are new categories of autonomous weapons that don’t yet exist – these could include armed mini-drones like those featured in the 2017 short film Slaughterbots.

“With that type of weapon, you could send a million of them in a container or cargo aircraft – so they have destructive capacity of a nuclear bomb but leave all the buildings behind,” said Russell.

Using facial recognition technology, the drones could “wipe out one ethnic group or one gender, or using social media information you could wipe out all people with a political view”.

The European Union in April published guidelines for how companies and governments should develop AI, including the need for human oversight, working towards societal and environmental wellbeing in a non-discriminatory way, and respecting privacy.

Russell argued it was essential to take the next step in the form of an international ban on lethal AI, that could be summarised as “machines that can decide to kill humans shall not be developed, deployed, or used”.

© AFP 2019

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    Mute Tony Gordon
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    Aug 22nd 2019, 10:57 AM

    Haven’t time to read this now……but I’ll be back.

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    Mute Dan Skelton
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    Aug 22nd 2019, 6:32 PM

    @Tony Gordon: I think after they’re done they’ll need a vacation.

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    Mute Squiddley Diddley
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    Aug 22nd 2019, 11:03 AM

    Amazon have come a long way from selling books.

    140
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    Mute Diogenes
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    Aug 22nd 2019, 11:10 AM

    Skynet is happening.

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    @at
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    Mute @at
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    Aug 22nd 2019, 11:09 AM

    James Cameron must feel a bit like Nostradamus with his terminator movies

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    Mute Barry Zuckerkorn
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    Aug 22nd 2019, 11:03 AM

    A robot apocalypse is exactly what this planet needs

    57
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    Mute Skybloo
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    Aug 22nd 2019, 11:23 AM

    Going to wait til Black Friday Sale to buy mine on Amazon

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    Mute Ciaran
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    Aug 22nd 2019, 12:35 PM

    @Skybloo: Optimus PRIME©

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    Mute Xanadu Marmalade
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    Aug 22nd 2019, 4:17 PM

    @Skybloo: or rather Harlan Ellison who Cameron ripped off

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    Mute Brian
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    Aug 22nd 2019, 11:08 AM

    We have 2 killer robots in running things already!! They are called Boris and Donald. They could do with a software update though!!!

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    Mute Paul Quirke
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    Aug 22nd 2019, 11:14 AM

    @Brian: The Boris is powerless more worried about The Putin

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    Mute Steve McCarthy
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    Aug 22nd 2019, 11:18 AM

    @Paul Quirke: Putin is by far the most predictable out of the 3 of them.

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    Mute Mushy Peas
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    Aug 22nd 2019, 2:01 PM

    @Steve McCarthy: why didn’t you warn us about Salisbury then??

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    Mute Gowon Geter
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    Aug 22nd 2019, 2:42 PM

    @Brian: We have 2 or our own ‘Killer Robots’ with Leo and Covney

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    Mute Fergus Murphy
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    Aug 22nd 2019, 11:14 AM

    Cyberdyne are developing these robots too

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    Mute Sean D
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    Aug 22nd 2019, 1:34 PM

    Judgement day is coming and unless you’re wearing factor three million sun block… your going to have a very very bad Day

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    Mute Derek Durkin
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    Aug 22nd 2019, 11:36 AM

    It’s inevitable and probably the next step in evolution through transhumanism.

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    Mute Henry Gaynor
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    Aug 22nd 2019, 12:17 PM

    We could develop drones to target criminals, anti-social behaviourists, litter bugs, etc.

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    Mute Tricia G
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    Aug 22nd 2019, 2:15 PM

    @Henry Gaynor: When you say “target” what exactly do you mean……..?

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    Mute Gowon Geter
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    Aug 22nd 2019, 2:43 PM

    @Henry Gaynor: Be better to ‘target’ corrupt bankers and politicans

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    Mute Henry Gaynor
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    Aug 22nd 2019, 7:32 PM

    @Tricia G: We could start with zapping them with a high voltage shock.

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    Mute Henry Gaynor
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    Aug 22nd 2019, 7:33 PM

    @Gowon Geter: Feel free to add to the list. Anyone who blights another person’s life should be targeted.

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    Mute Roy Scott
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    Aug 22nd 2019, 12:36 PM

    Where John Connor when you need him

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    Mute Brian McHale-Boyle
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    Aug 22nd 2019, 4:14 PM

    Kyle Reese died so that we all may live.

    The world as we know it would have ended in 1997 were it not for his sacrifice.

    DO NOT let his death be in vain.

    #NeverForgetToRemeber

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    Mute Brian McHale-Boyle
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    Aug 22nd 2019, 4:16 PM

    @Brian McHale-Boyle: Remeber? REMEMBER! Skynet is already active and changing my spelling.

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    Mute emer caffrey
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    Aug 22nd 2019, 11:59 AM

    Wipeout

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    ed w
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    Mute ed w
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    Aug 22nd 2019, 1:24 PM

    As long as none are called skynet we’ll be ok

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    Mute Mark Hannan
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    Aug 22nd 2019, 9:19 PM

    None of these robots are vaccinated either..just saying

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    Mute Gordon Walsh
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    Aug 22nd 2019, 5:02 PM

    Intel formed a subsidiary: Intel Federal LLC to engage directly with US Government. There’s not a lot of visibility on what technology this subsidiary sells to the US Government

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    Mute Ger
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    Aug 22nd 2019, 5:58 PM

    Therefore

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