return2ozmaNov 25, 2023

The Pentagon is moving toward letting AI weapons autonomously decide to kill humans

https://lemmy.world/post/8715340

The Pentagon is moving toward letting AI weapons autonomously decide to kill humans - Lemmy.World

Show threadFaceDeerNov 25, 2023
If you program an AI drone to recognize ambulances and medics and forbid them from blowing them up, then you can be sure that they will never intentionally blow them up. That alone makes them superior to having a Mk. I Human holding the trigger, IMO.
Show threadGigglyBobble
Unless the operator decides hitting exactly those targets fits their strategy and they can blame a software bug.
Nov 25, 2023 at 6:58amWeb
Show threadFaceDeerNov 25, 2023
And then when they go looking for that bug and find the logs showing that the operator overrode the safeties instead, they know exactly who is responsible for blowing up those ambulances.
Show threadGigglyBobbleNov 25, 2023
And if the operator was commanded to do it? And to delete the logs? How naive are you that this is somehow make war more humane?
Show threadFaceDeerNov 25, 2023
Each additional safeguard makes it harder and adds another name to the eventual war crimes trial. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good, especially when it comes to reducing the number of ambulances that get blown up in war zones.
Show threadmihiesNov 25, 2023
It doesn't work like that though. Western (backed) military can do and does that unpunished.
Show threadmihiesNov 25, 2023
Here is a sample of US drone killing civilians
A US drone killed a Somali mother and her daughter – but no one was found guilty

The world’s most powerful military force mistook a woman and a child for a man in rural Somalia, killed them, and decided their deaths were no one’s fault.

The Continent
Show threadFlying SquidNov 25, 2023

Israeli general: Captain, were you responsible for reprogramming the drones to bomb those ambulances?

Israeli captain: Yes, sir! Sorry, sir!

Israeli general: Captain, you’re just the sort of man we need in this army.

Show threadFaceDeerNov 25, 2023
Ah, evil people exist and therefore we should never develop technology that evil people could use. Right.
Show threadFlying SquidNov 25, 2023
Seems like a good reason not to develop technology to me. See also: biological weapons.
Show threadFaceDeerNov 25, 2023
Those weapons come out of developments in medicine. Technology itself is not good or evil, it can be used for good or for evil. If you decide not to develop technology you're depriving the good of it as well. My point earlier is to show that there are good uses for these things.
Show threadFlying SquidNov 25, 2023

Hmm… so maybe we keep developing medicine but not as a weapon and we keep developing AI but not as a weapon.

Or can you explain why one should be restricted from weapons development and not the other?

Show threadlivusNov 25, 2023

I disagree with your premise here. Taking a life is a serious step. A machine that unilaterally decides to kill some people with no recourse to human input has no good application.

It's like inventing a new biological weapon.

By not creating it, you are not depriving any decent person of anything that is actually good.