Campaign to Stop Killer Robots!

[Brazen]

Professor Noel Sharkey knows balls-all about how militaries conduct their affairs, and indeed from analysis I've read of his, knows less about robotics than should be the case. It's infuriating how he keeps getting wheeled out for comment on anything to do with autonomous weapon systems in the press.

There are very good arguments against fully autonomous weapon systems. But the killer robots campaign is not making them.

I've interviewed Sharkey twice, including apropos of this current campaign, and he does regret that the "killer robot" angle has been picked up to attract press headlines. The main thing they are campaigning for is the language of the relevant Geneva Convention article to be updated to cover meaningful human supervision of all automated targeting. The last update was in the 70s when mobile phones weren't even around.

While "human in the loop" is a prerequisite for a kill order, exactly how that works does need to be ratified. For example, in the Iraq war, the Patriot system shot down a British Tornado and two American fighter jets by mistake, despite a 10-second window in which a human could have vetoed the shot.

[Brazen]

Awesome article by a colleague on new military AI for autonomous systems here:
http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/e0f0a6ae#/e0f0a6ae/18

[dps]

Professor Noel Sharkey knows balls-all about how militaries conduct their affairs, and indeed from analysis I've read of his, knows less about robotics than should be the case. It's infuriating how he keeps getting wheeled out for comment on anything to do with autonomous weapon systems in the press.

There are very good arguments against fully autonomous weapon systems. But the killer robots campaign is not making them.

I've interviewed Sharkey twice, including apropos of this current campaign, and he does regret that the "killer robot" angle has been picked up to attract press headlines. The main thing they are campaigning for is the language of the relevant Geneva Convention article to be updated to cover meaningful human supervision of all automated targeting. The last update was in the 70s when mobile phones weren't even around.

While "human in the loop" is a prerequisite for a kill order, exactly how that works does need to be ratified. For example, in the Iraq war, the Patriot system shot down a British Tornado and two American fighter jets by mistake, despite a 10-second window in which a human could have vetoed the shot.

"Friendly fire" isn't something new with automated systems.  Just ask Stonewall Jackson.

[Ideologue]

I'm not driving all the way out to where they dump the bodies of people who don't receive Christian burials.

[derspiess]

And when they grab you with those metal claws, you can't break free.  Because they're made of metal, and robots are strong.

They use old people's medicine for food.

[Siege]

Damn killer robots gonna make unemployment go up.

We need more regulations and more taxes to enforce the regulations.

Also, we need real human tellers, not ATMs.