The rise of the killer robots – and the two women fighting back

It sounds like something from the outer reaches of science fiction: battlefield robots waging
constant war, algorithms that determine who to kill, face-recognition fighting machines that can
ID a target and take it out before you have time to say “Geneva conventions”. This is no film
script, however, but an ominous picture of future warfare that is moving ever closer. “Killer
robots” is shorthand for a range of tech that has generals salivating and peace campaigners
terrified at the ethical ramifications of warfare waged via digital proxies.

Now, two women armed with nothing more than a Nobel prize, knowhow and a lot of conviction
are standing in front of the march of deadly killer robots. They want them banned and they’ve
done this kind of thing before.

Jody Williams won her Nobel for leading the long, global effort to get anti-personnel landmines
banned. Mary Wareham was a prominent supporter in that campaign.

“We were there at the Nobel peace prize ceremony,” Wareham recalls, “and I said to Jody, ‘This
is how you finish your career, not start it! What are we going to do now?!

The answer? Lethal autonomous weapon systems, also known as Laws. The women expect the
struggle to be far harder. “In relative terms, landmines are chump change,” Williams says,
pointing to the billions of dollars manufacturers could make selling AI-enhanced weapons.

Artificial intelligence is already spreading rapidly through policing, healthcare, farming and
social work. AI experts are cautioning that militaries will be next. The big question is: what
would stop armies from deploying upgraded drone bots to search for, identify, and then take out
every man in a village between the ages of 18 and 50? Or to send a killer drone to ID and
assassinate a head of state? Weapons manufacturers are riding the same artificial intelligence
wave as other industries. Militaries, eyeing each other in a quiet but fierce arms race, are funding
some of the most cutting-edge trials.
To some, the advantages are clear that killer robots would never fatigue like a human soldier.
They could potentially stay out on the battlefield for months. They would never get angry or seek
revenge. They would never defy an officer’s orders. They would remove the imperfect human
from the equation. Algorithms would determine who to kill.

But other military experts have expressed concerns. “There are not only legal and ethical
concerns about lethal autonomy, but practical ones as well,” says Paul Scharre, a former US
army ranger who wrote the Pentagon’s earliest policy statement on killer robots. “How does one
control an autonomous weapon? What happens if there’s a glitch in the system or someone hacks
it?”

To Williams, the machines represent the very definition of cold-blooded slaughter. With killer
robots, World War III would allow little space for what shred of humanity surfaces in wars. There
will be no Christmas truce along the western front in any 21st century conflict

Source: https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/08/the-rise-of-the-
killer-robots-jody-williams-mary-warehan-artificial-intelligence-autonomous-weapons