Robot wars make great movies, but now deadly en mass killing machines are a reality.
Kiwi scientists want to know more, and a Christchurch-based study to analyse the international debate for lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS) has been granted $842,000.
University of Canterbury Associate professor Amy Fletcher said LAWS would transform everything from the size of militaries to the number of casualties, and change was already happening “on a scary level”.
“Opponents fear a world of ‘algorithmic warfare’ in which robots can make decisions to kill in the absence of human oversight,” she said.
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On the other hand, proponents argued that the weapons could decrease civilian casualties.
The international Campaign to Ban Killer Robots, coordinated by New Zealander Mary Wareham, and other international bodies are seeking a global ban on their use.
Fletcher felt an outright ban of the weapons would be impossible as large nations wanted them too much.
JOHN MOORE
LAWS technology is already here, and in use, like this US Air Force MQ-1B Predator unmanned aerial vehicle used for drone airstrikes.
“What I do hope is that we can reach globally binding rules … I think that’s feasible.”
To date there’s never been a study on the intense political and corporate debate about the use of the autonomous weapons.
Fletcher said their research could assist the development of effective, ethical regulation.
Twelve countries are known to be developing LAWS, including the United States, China, Russia and Israel.
University of Canterbury Associate professor Amy Fletcher says the development of effective, ethical regulation of LAWS is possible.
New Zealand robotics company X-Craft Enterprises founder Philip Solaris, who is against the weapons, said he was most concerned about the international “arms race” to build super computers using artificial intelligence to make war decisions.
“The whole history of warfare has been that decisions have very rarely been snap decisions.
“They’ve been about conferencing and talking … what’s coming now is a complete breakdown of historical warfare. It’s about the potential of not having humans in that conversation.”
In 2017, X-Craft Enterprises signed its name alongside Elon Musk on an open letter to the United Nations calling for an international ban and creation of the weapons.
The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots and their mascot David Wreckham want to ban lethal autonomous weapons.
Solaris said the conversation about LAWS was very political, like the invention of any weapon.
The days of one person controlling a single robot or drone had become archaic and outdated.
“The future is now swarm robots, in the sea, in the air or on the land. What that means is you’ve hundreds of robots which are all controlled from one point.”
In the 1984 film Terminator, an evil artificial intelligence begins directing machines in an all-out war to exterminate the human race.
Solaris said nations such as China and Russia were in “an arms race” to have the capability of LAWS because it would give them the ability to win almost any conflict.
But the use of robotics and artificial intelligence could also be used for extreme good, and could solve a range of problems, he said.
It was a positive move for researchers at Canterbury to analyse the issue.
The three-year University of Canterbury research will be conducted by Dr Jeremy Moses and Fletcher from the department of political science and international relations, and Dr Geoff Ford, a political scientist at the university’s arts digital lab. The $842,000 has been granted by the Marsden Fund.