There’s no doubt that the evolution of technology had shifted our lives. Its automatic systems and features enable us to streamline our activities and tasks. The technology we’re using right now has changed the way we live. Today, we prefer online shopping instead of going to a brick and mortar store and queue a long line in order to buy something. In just a few clicks, everything can be delivered to our doors. Paying bills is simple as 1, 2, 3. We’ve become so advanced in technology that we get to enjoy and appreciate our lives more.
However, we must also bear in mind that while technology is a great invention of the era, it also has the other side of the coin. Technology, if misused, can also pave the way to mass destruction. And that is what the scientists are trying to prevent at all costs. Just last week, the University of California at Berkeley produced a short film featuring a brutal future about the dangers of creating robots and autonomous weapons.
Scientists Produced a Short, Disturbing Film to Warn People About the Devastating Effects of Autonomous Weapons
This short film was produced by the campaigners and concerned scientists to raise awareness about the dangers and repercussions of producing autonomous weapons. If you’ve watched the film above, you’ll discover that a military firm unveils a drone that can kill with deadly accuracy and efficiency. But when the military firm was invaded and the drone went into wrong hands, nothing is safe. The drone starts wrecking the world and plunging it into mass destruction. Politicians were killed in broad daylight, the machines descending on lecture halls and activists, beheading them off as it goes on a killing spree. Just by imagining what a tiny drone is capable of doing disturbs us to no end. These autonomous weapons can track and kill its targets without human supervision.
The use of AI Technology may trigger the production of autonomous weapons
What’s appalling and dreading is the fact that the rising production of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Virtual Reality certainly brings us closer to this disturbing future. That’s why before we reach the point of no return, concerned scientists are urging the United Nations Council to create a preemptive ban on technologies applied for the sole purpose of the production of autonomous weapons.
Stuart Russell, who is a leading scientist in the said university, warned the council About the Production of Killer Robots
Stuart Russell was a leading AI scientist in Berkeley, California and was also one of the proponents of the said film, warned that the mass production of automated machine guns such as drones and tanks will threaten our human security and freedom.
“The technology illustrated in the film is simply an integration of existing capabilities. It is not science fiction. In fact, it is easier to achieve than self-driving cars, which require far higher standards of performance. Pursuing the development of lethal autonomous weapons would drastically reduce international, national, local, and personal security,” Russell said.
Professor Stuart Russell seeks a preemptive ban for the production of autonomous weapons
We all know that the military facilities around the world are one of the largest funders and adopters of AI. They use AI in order to produce robots that can fly, track its targets, and patrol their respective territories. Under normal circumstances, access to such autonomous weapons is generally safe and secured. However, AI scientist like Russell fears that these autonomous weapons may fall into the wrong hands.
Aside from that, we all know for a fact that AI-powered machines and parts are relatively cheap to acquire, the critics fear that anyone can easily manufacture and mass produce these killing weapons and hand it over to terrorists or rogue nations seeking to threaten world peace and inflict fear and war against neighboring nations.
A Treaty Should be Passed to Prevent the large-scale manufacturing of the technology.
Killer robots may endanger peace security and freedom
Once a treaty was passed, the United Nations Security Council can also provide framework and code of ethical conduct for police and military institution adapting that technology, limiting their applications and production of autonomous weapons in the process.
“Professional codes of ethics should also disallow the development of machines that can decide to kill a human. The UN moves at iceberg pace and actors with vested interests put obstacles in the path at every turn,” Sharkey said. “But the campaign continues to move forward with massive support from the scientific community. We must succeed because the alternatives are too horrifying.”
