The Race to Stop Autonomous Weapons
AI expert and University of New South Wales professor Toby Walsh fears that autonomous weapons (those that require no human direction or activation) are not super-futuristic but much closer than many people think. Obviously, this is a scary concept. “You can’t have machines deciding whether humans live or die. It crosses new territory. Machines don’t have our moral compass, our compassion and our emotions. Machines are not moral beings,” Walsh says. The professor has been a part of a group lobbying internationally for countries to sign on preemptively to ban the development of such weapons. So far, only 28 of 200 have—the US, China, Russia, UK and others have yet to commit. Walsh argues, “The best time to ban such weapons is before they’re available.” Read more at the New York Times.
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