With the rise of digitalization and the fourth industrial revolution in full swing, negative aspects are also emerging, and humanity is facing one of the greatest threats of our time, which is weaponry with artificial intelligence, writes The Next Web.
Terminator is a colloquial name for such weaponry, named after the cult film of the same name in which artificial intelligence turned against humanity. ‘AI takeover’ is a euphemism for the frightening consequences that artificial intelligence brings with it.
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The tech industry claims that granting free will to robots is a recipe for disaster, especially if those robots are armed. Just like in all wars so far, every superpower will have to develop an arsenal of AI weapons, and the Pentagon has already invested $18 billion in ‘combat AI’.
More than 100 roboticists and leaders in the tech industry have sent an open letter to the UN, urging them to ban the creation of AI weapons, which is the second such letter. The first letter was signed by over a thousand scientists, including Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk, and Steve Wozniak. AI weaponry is a topic of significant ethical debate, and the industry that creates robots has expressed opposition to such armament.
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The biggest critic of AI weaponry is tech leader Elon Musk, who believes that the arms race led by America, China, and Russia could trigger World War III. Terrorists, on the other hand, pose a special threat that could acquire AI weapons on the black market.
While Russian President Vladimir Putin is a strong advocate for artificial intelligence, arguing that future armed conflicts involving robots could mitigate human casualties, America has a different opinion.
If the UN does not react soon, it will be too late, and artificial intelligence will become a key part of armament.
The U.S. armed forces believe that autonomous weapons cannot take lives without human control. AI has almost unlimited potential to control thousands of robot soldiers at the same time.
In response to the first open letter, the UN formed an expert working group that will operate under the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. A ban by the UN must happen as soon as possible, or it will be too late when AI weaponry changes the way wars are fought.
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AI weaponry could save lives, but it also has great potential to destroy them. People still do not fully understand how artificial intelligence works, and the arms race is pushing technology to its limits. Experts must discover how to shut down technology when it turns against humanity and ensure that humans control technology, not the other way around.
The fate of humanity is in the hands of the UN, which must hurry with a decision on regulating the creation of armed robots. Although people may soon open Pandora’s box with this, they still have enough time to figure out how to close it.
