Packs of robots will hunt down uncooperative humans

by Erik Larson | October 23, 2008 at 09:12 pm
137 views | 14 Recommendations | 11 comments

The comments at newscientist.com are filled with jokes about Robocop, Terminator and Clone Wars, but absent a successful neo-Luddite revolution, robots and AI are going to continue to evolve in this direction and beyond. I see it as the logical outgrowth of the same evolutionary process that produced intelligent, self-aware, thinking, information age-creating humans, and that smart AI is likely to want to preserve its biological heritage just as most humans favor preserving species and the environment. In the interests of creating stability, AI, instead of being a Homo Sapiens Terminator, may well help the human race solve a lot of the unneccessary problems and heartache we cause that we have so much trouble solving, like war, hate, pollution, poverty, inequality, prejudice, ignorance, you name it. As the author concludes, "What do you make of this? Are we letting our militaries run technologically amok with our tax dollars? Or can robot soldiers be programmed to be even more ethical than human ones, as some researchers claim?" The People may not be able (or want) to stop this from happening, but we can increase disclosure and awareness, and hopefully head off potential conflicts and problems before they arise. "Information wants to be free" (from human bondage?)

The latest request from the Pentagon jars the senses. At least, it did mine. They are looking for contractors to provide a "Multi-Robot Pursuit System" that will let packs of robots "search for and detect a non-cooperative human".

One thing that really bugs defence chiefs is having their troops diverted from other duties to control robots. So having a pack of them controlled by one person makes logistical sense. But I'm concerned about where this technology will end up.

Given that iRobot last year struck a deal with Taser International to mount stun weapons on its military robots, how long before we see packs of droids hunting down pesky demonstrators with paralysing weapons? Or could the packs even be lethally armed? I asked two experts on automated weapons what they thought

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Jordan Yerman
Jordan Yerman
flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 04:38 on October 24th, 2008

Ultimately, the robots will do as they're told (we're a long, long way from "looking for Sarah Connor"). So, in terms of ethics and mission creep, the robot pack will be acting as proxy for the soldier or police officer. Not sure if that makes me feel better or not.

duo
duo
flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 05:16 on October 24th, 2008

Erik Larson, I like this story. It's good stuff.

Well this is news to me.  I thought we already had those.  Just kidding, officers!  Please put the Tasers away.

Mary

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Iffy

It's a great idea and inevitable. I am afraid in things of warfare, it is 'vorsprung durch technic': advantage through technology. I do recall in Ironman the Taliban try and make a robot, but it isn't as good. 

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Rhonda J Mangus

Erik, thanks for this story also published previously at NowPublic here.

SOLARLIFE
SOLARLIFE
flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 05:47 on October 24th, 2008

Erik Larson, I like this story. It's good stuff.

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Erik Larson

thanks Rhonda, missed that in a search

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Erik Larson

thanks for the good stuff ya'll

Jordan- i agree, they'll do what they're told (cept that one in Iraq); i personally won't feel comfortable as long as Republocrats and their backers are running things. Potentially, AI has far less worrisome conflicts of interest than most (all?) politicians and CEOs

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Erik Larson

right, i've encountered the Traffic Stop Terminator myself before. Thanks for the good stuff, Mary

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Erik Larson

Thanks Solarlife; eventually these things will probably be solar powered, too

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Erik Larson

yeah, it would be cool if we could put these things to work harvesting crops and put the migrant human workers in school instead. It's not like the robots will mind working; they'll do it in exchange for instructions, electricity and maintenance. But most people enjoy rewarding work, and can think of plenty of fun and good things to do without hurting others- that actually make the world a better and more beautiful place.

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jessica.lam

Interesting find. wow.

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