Bard’s Arthur Holland Michel: The Killer Algorithms Nobody’s Talking About
A pilot grasps a flight control and weapons firing stick while preparing to launch a U.S. Air Force MQ-1B Predator unmanned aerial vehicle, from a ground control station at a secret air base in the Persian Gulf region in 2016. Photo by John Moore/Getty Images
Activists fret about armies relying on killer robots, but some forms of artificial intelligence that don’t actually pull the trigger could still be a nightmare. “The widespread use of sophisticated autonomous aids in war would be fraught with unknown unknowns,” writes Holland Michel, codirector of the Bard Center for the Study of the Drone. “An algorithm with the power to suggest whether a tank should use a small rocket or a fighter jet to take out an enemy could mark the difference between life and death for anybody who happens to be in the vicinity of the target.” He concludes, “Automation’s vast potential to make humans more efficient extends to the very human act of committing war crimes.”
Post Date: 01-18-2020
Post Date: 01-18-2020