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“ROBOTS ARE NOT taking over the world”, was the message given this week during United Nations talks on the issue of autonomous weapons.
That’s according to the diplomat leading the first official talks on the issue, the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), as they sought to ease criticism over slow progress towards restricting the use of so-called “killer robots”.
The United Nations was wrapping up an initial five days of discussions on weapons systems that can identify and destroy targets without human control, which experts say will soon be battle ready.
The meeting of the CCW marked an initial step towards an agreed set of rules governing such weapons.
But activists warned that time was running out and that the glacial pace of the UN-brokered discussions was not responding to an arms race already underway.
In August, Elon Musk called for a ban on killer robots, saying:
We do not have long to act. Once this Pandora’s box is opened, it will be hard to close.
The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX joined more than 100 robotics and artificial intelligence entrepreneurs in signing a letter to the UN calling for action to prevent the development of autonomous weapons.
“Lethal autonomous weapons threaten to become the third revolution in warfare,” warned the statement signed by 116 tech luminaries, also including Mustafa Suleyman, cofounder of Google’s DeepMind.
“Once developed, they will permit armed conflict to be fought at a scale greater than ever, and at timescales faster than humans can comprehend,” the letter reads.
But this week, India’s disarmament ambassador, Amandeep Gill, who chaired the CCW meeting, said: “Ladies and gentlemen, I have news for you: the robots are not taking over the world. Humans are still in charge.”
“I think we have to be careful in not emotionalising or dramatising this issue,” he told reporters in response to criticism about the speed of the conference’s work.
Twenty-two countries, mostly those with smaller military budgets and lesser technical know-how, have called for an outright ban, arguing that automated weapons are by definition illegal as every individual decision to launch a strike must be made by a human.
Gill underscored that banning killer robots, or even agreement on rules, remained a distant prospect.
He said nations are likely to meet on the issue again for two weeks next year for further discussions focused on how autonomous weapons work and how their use should be controlled.
“I am very happy with the start we made”, he said. “It would be unwise for us to rush into (anything) at this stage.”
No time to waste
Campaign groups agreed that there had been some progress at the inaugural meeting but sounded an alarm over further foot-dragging.
“Countries do not have time… to waste just talking about this subject,” Mary Wareham of the arms division at Human Rights Watch told AFP.
She said that “militaries around the world and defence companies are sinking a lot of money” into weapons that select and destroy targets without human control.
The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots pressure group, which Wareham coordinates, highlighted two key points of agreement that emerged during the UN meeting.
Most nations now agree on the need for a new “legally-binding instrument” controlling the use of killer robots and most “states now accept that some form of human control must be maintained over weapons systems”, a campaign statement said.
‘Weapons of mass destruction’
The question now is deciding “what effective human control means in practice”, the head of the Arms Unit at the International Committee of the Red Cross, Kathleen Lawand, told AFP in an email.
The ICRC has not called for a ban, but Lawand warned that action on setting limits was “urgently needed” as the technology was moving fast.
Academics attending the talks in Geneva urged the UN to act before it was too late.
The “arms race has happened (and) is happening today” said Toby Walsh, an expert on artificial intelligence at the University of New South Wales in Australia.
“These will be weapons of mass destruction”, he added during a side-event at the UN this week.
“I am actually quite confident that we will ban these weapons… My only concern is whether (nations) have the courage of conviction to do it now, or whether we will have to wait for people to die first.”
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Ain’t the media great to give these protests wall to wall coverage…
@Derek Durkin: Goddamn media reporting the news, despicable if you ask me.
@Diarmuid Hunt: yeah because that’s how the media works yeah….not too bright are we
@Derek Durkin: I didn’t say they weren’t selective. Nice ad hominem though.
If you choose to chain or glue yourself to objects, you should be left to protest unaided for 24 hours or at least until you toilet yourself.
@Mick Byrne: Do you really give a **** about what you claim to believe in?
@Mick Byrne: You’re only giving them ideas! Dirty protests are not unheard of in this country…
@Mick Byrne: And to ask what toilets do they use or do they tow mobile toilets with them.
Bunch of hypocrites should be all arrested
@Jim O Brien – TechBuzz Ireland: Arrested for protesting? Are you sure about that?
@Shakka1244: they’re breaching the peace so they can be arrested, there is nothing peaceful about pushing through a barricade and chaining yourself to a gate also it’s worth noting that assembly near or at the dail can be controlled or shut down under article 40 of the Constitution. At this stage their numbers are dwindling and they’re getting desperate for media attention, this little stunt just proves it. Sure their little March through Penneys on Mary street completely backfired, there was killings on Twitter because they came across as elitist and snobby.
@Peej: I think you’ll find that many could see that they weren’t elitist or snobby, more highlighting the abhorrent working conditions of the sweatshops used to fund the functioning capitalists who sell such items by mass production, shops like Penney’s capitalize on the detachment of works who are often as young as 12 brought from urban areas to big cities to be exploited for the good of the western consumer, whilst the big chains relish in the reward,.
Get in those lads the council employed . Seemed to work a dream
Arrest them all already. Waste of tax payers money. Right to free protest has long since passed
@Gareth Murran: Are you saying that anyone that protests should be immediately arrested? Since when did we become North Korea?
@Shakka1244: if XR on their manifesto are encouraging civil disobedience and not protests, by its very nature, their intention is to be arrested!! There is a difference between cd and protest.
@Jennifer Hampson: Yep, civil disobedience pretty much guarantees time in custody. It depends on whether enough people think the cause is worth it & if enough do, change will soon follow. Time will tell if they keep it up but if the climate keeps getting worse, it’ll only go one way.
I thought it already was an open house if you were in the know!!!!!!
Ruined a great event for the general public. And now the hippies will wonder why they ain’t getting support? Plant a hemp tree somewhere and smoke it when it finally is big enough.
TD are the one making the issue of carbon with this tax to handle the public deficit . Twenty per cent of that national debt made up of a deal made by a minister with IMF ad EU never laid before the Dail .
When did a minister get authority to treat his deal as law of land without consnet of Dail and Oireachtas ie legislation making deal part of law
and
How can TD vote on estiamte if the Dail has no control over what in kitty to spend whihc it does not until that deal laid beofe it by min?
Commission can serve notice on ireland to reduce that deficit (64.8 per cent in excess of the 60 per cent threshold under the Fiscal Compact Treaty per ntma report at end of 18 with loan of 44 billion from eu and uk ) as an DEBTOR to EU ??
TD complaining about not enuf spend are only putting us into deeper debt and only DAIL can change situation by TD having minister LAY that EU/IMF deal before the dail that will reduce deficit until DAIL approves terms by voting thru legislation making it part of law of state. Term that public spending complies with deficit rule but also public funds will cap bank cos share value fall cos of ECB policit we have no control over.
Minister have to acknowledge a debt cos min signed loan agreement .
But TD seem to want to have cake and eat it want to complain about govt , overspending or underspending but not taking control of the fund but seem to have no problem voting thru these estimate . Think it will carry on until voter tell local TD .. hey why isnt that deal before Dail? We elect U to be responsible for whats in kitty to spend not minister ?
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