Opposition to autonomous warfare swells to 16,000 signatories | Technology | The Guardian

1.8.15

Opposition to autonomous warfare swells to 16,000 signatories | Technology | The Guardian: The letter says “AI technology has reached a point where the deployment of [autonomous weapons] is – practically if not legally – feasible within years” and was initially signed by Tesla’s Elon Musk, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Google DeepMind chief executive Demis Hassabis and professor Stephen Hawking. It has now been signed by over 2,000 experts, as well as another 14,000 individuals from outside the AI community.

It warns: “The stakes are high: autonomous weapons have been described as the third revolution in warfare, after gunpowder and nuclear arms … The endpoint of this technological trajectory is obvious: autonomous weapons will become the Kalashnikovs of tomorrow. The key question for humanity today is whether to start a global AI arms race or to prevent it from starting.”