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Government Robotics The Military

The UN Will Consider Banning Killer Robots (hrw.org) 210

Friday the United Nations agreed to discuss a ban on "killer robots" in 2017. The 123 signatories to a long-standing conventional weapons pact "agreed to formalize their efforts next year to deal with the challenges raised by weapons systems that would select and attack targets without meaningful human control," according to Human Rights Watch. "The governments meeting in Geneva took an important step toward stemming the development of killer robots, but there is no time to lose," said Steve Goose, arms director of Human Rights Watch, a co-founder of the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots. "Once these weapons exist, there will be no stopping them. The time to act on a pre-emptive ban is now."
schwit1 reminded us that IEEE Spectrum ran a guest post Thursday by AI professor Toby Walsh, who addressed the U.N. again this week. "If we don't get a ban in place, there will be an arms race. And the end point of this race will look much like the dystopian future painted by Hollywood movies like The Terminator."
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The UN Will Consider Banning Killer Robots

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  • Meh. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Frosty Piss ( 770223 ) * on Saturday December 17, 2016 @09:40PM (#53505907)

    Like many of the proclamations from the UN, such a ban will have little influence over the development and use of "killer robots".

    • Not just that - this is a macrocosm of 2nd amendment arguments in the US. Just like people who advocate banning assault rifles would only affect law abiding citizens, similarly, such a ban would affect law abiding nations, but do nothing about rogue nations who sooner or later would have that capability

      Besides, I disagree w/ this proposal for a simple reason. We should avoid intervening in other countries, such as Syria. But if we have to go in, I'd rather send in killer robots after ISIS rather than

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by arth1 ( 260657 )

        Besides, I disagree w/ this proposal for a simple reason. We should avoid intervening in other countries, such as Syria. But if we have to go in, I'd rather send in killer robots after ISIS rather than American (or any other) humans who'll get killed or maimed for life. We should have killer robots substitute soldiers: it would also solve the issue of a depleted military as well as the idea for a draft

        If you're not man enough to look the enemy in the eyes while killing him, you're... American. The term is becoming synonymous with coward, and I'm ashamed.

        From carpet bombing Dresden to napalming villages in Viet Nam to drone strikes in Afghanistan, it's clear that American soldiers are not men enough to risk their own lives to spare civilians.

        • by K. S. Kyosuke ( 729550 ) on Saturday December 17, 2016 @11:07PM (#53506171)
          Generals and terrorist leaders have already been using robots for quite some time. Biological ones, that is. They haven't risked their own lives, either.
          • by arth1 ( 260657 )

            Generals and terrorist leaders have already been using robots for quite some time. Biological ones, that is. They haven't risked their own lives, either.

            Yes, it has been a long time since the days of chivalry, and leaders being called leaders because they were leading.

        • by Applehu Akbar ( 2968043 ) on Saturday December 17, 2016 @11:09PM (#53506185)

          "If you're not man enough to look the enemy in the eyes while killing him, you're... American. The term is becoming synonymous with coward, and I'm ashamed."

          The objective of war is not to look "man enough" but to kill sufficiently large numbers of enemy that he will no longer be inclined to attack you.

          • The objective of war is not to look "man enough" but to kill sufficiently large numbers of enemy that he will no longer be inclined to attack you.

            That's the weirdest twisting of jus ad bello I've seen since the Bush Doctrine.

        • by amiga3D ( 567632 ) on Saturday December 17, 2016 @11:24PM (#53506235)

          The idea is to kill the enemy without getting killed. There are no points for style. We try to limit death of non combatants but if they're in the kill zone that's just the way the cookie crumbles. You fight wars to win because the alternative is something no one want to experience. American soldiers put themselves in harms way if needed but they are trained to survive while accomplishing the mission.

          • by SeattleLawGuy ( 4561077 ) on Sunday December 18, 2016 @05:09AM (#53507075)

            The idea is to kill the enemy without getting killed. There are no points for style. We try to limit death of non combatants but if they're in the kill zone that's just the way the cookie crumbles. You fight wars to win because the alternative is something no one want to experience. American soldiers put themselves in harms way if needed but they are trained to survive while accomplishing the mission.

            Wars serve a political objective, usually badly. There are points for style, primarily because style has propaganda value, and propaganda changes political support for wars, leaders, and causes--whether that means someone voting to bring troops home or someone telling a private where the enemy ambush is waiting for his unit. Even when you lose a battle or part of one, there can be points for style--Dunkirk, Pearl Harbor, Bastogne, all involved at least temporary defeats that were in some sense spun into political victories that served the war effort. On the offensive side, style matters too--the drone attack with collateral damage that injures or kills non-terrorists, for example, can create more terrorists in the next generation.

        • by AJWM ( 19027 )

          Oh, not looking the enemy in the eyes started long, long before Dresden, or even The Blitz. Hell, it was old when the English at Crecy and Agincourt rained death on the French with longbow and cannon. It was probably old when Xerxes attempted to do the same (well, sans cannon) to the Greeks at Thermopylae.

          War isn't a contact sport, it's a continuation of politics by other means.

        • If you're not man enough to look the enemy in the eyes while killing him, you're... American.

          Thanks for the info, Rambo. BTW, where exactly have you served? What MOS?

        • by gtall ( 79522 )

          Whatever, Gen. Powell was once asked the question of if America was fighting like weenies from the skies. Gen. Powell's response was, if I have an advantage in a fight, I'm going to use it. I want to win and get it over with as soon as possible.

          And using Dresden, Viet Nam, and Afghanistan are stupid examples give the cost in American lives during those wars. The U.S. was certainly man enough to risk U.S. lives in those operations. The goal of war is not to show how big is your dick, something the jihadis fo

          • by arth1 ( 260657 )

            Whatever, Gen. Powell was once asked the question of if America was fighting like weenies from the skies. Gen. Powell's response was, if I have an advantage in a fight, I'm going to use it. I want to win and get it over with as soon as possible.

            People who think you can [b]win[/b] a war scares me. Colin Powell is a sad short-sighted man who thinks in terms of battles, not wars.

            The idea is to attain your goals and achieve peace with as little loss as possible. On both sides, because as a conqueror, you assume the responsibility of the conquered. They become your problem.

        • It's hard, cold dollars. The US will spent 5x the cost of the Afghanistan war over the next few decades just taking care of all of the humans that were injured in the fight - and nobody has budgeted for that.

          We gave up feeling the warm blood, entrails, and life draining from our vicims when we invented firearms.

      • As the summary says, the proposed ban is on devices which "select and attack targets without meaningful human control". So basically none of what you wrote applies.

        In fact, it's the exact opposite of "macrocosm of 2nd amendment arguments in the US" - supporters of the second amendment point out that "guns don't kill people, people kill people"; their argument is that the device is controlled by a person, who can do good or bad with a steel pipe too.

        • You are referring to another aspect of the 2nd amendment argument. I was talking about the one regarding the question of who follows the law. In case of guns, criminals usually flout gun laws, and so it's just the law abiding who are handicapped. In this case, nations replace individuals, the UN replaces law enforcement and killer robots replace guns. Making it the macrocosm

          • Nations aren't American people, though.

            Americans tend to care about "freedom". Not any particular freedom, mind you, but they cling to the fantasy story that they are somehow "free" in an abstract sense, and any limit on that freedom is a grave assault on their very essence. However, the more recent evolution of this philosophy has extended the concern to others' freedoms as well. The privacy advocates don't have anything to hide themselves, but they're sure that someone out there has horrible secrets they'

      • Not just that - this is a macrocosm of 2nd amendment arguments in the US. Just like people who advocate banning assault rifles would only affect law abiding citizens, similarly, such a ban would affect law abiding nations, but do nothing about rogue nations who sooner or later would have that capability

        It doesn't really work like that. The US is the #1 exporter of weapons to the world. So if "rogue nations" acquire killer robots, there's a good chance that they will have bought them from a US company.

        So i

      • Having to murder a bunch of living people via remote control may still give people PTSD. But yes, I don't think it would be as bad - especially with plenty of sleep, little personal fear, and other stressors being reduced.

        • I'm just talking about our side, not theirs. I don't particularly care whether ISIS or other Jihadi fighters get PTSD
          • So was I. Supposedly drone pilots, who get to work in air conditioned trailers at an airbase in Nevada and go home every day, get PTSD sometimes. I don't know how prevalent it is. And certainly, if they are working in optimal conditions, not chaotic field conditions, you could rotate your combat operators off duty every month or so. Have them spend 2 weeks decompressing and talking about their experiences under the influence of some drugs to help them process what they had to do.

            Another thing not fully

    • Re:Meh. (Score:5, Informative)

      by LWATCDR ( 28044 ) on Saturday December 17, 2016 @10:30PM (#53506055) Homepage Journal

      It is also about 60+ years too late. G7es, Mk24 Mine, V1, JB-1 Loon.... All killer robots as is every modern torpedo and missile.

      • The proposed ban is on devices which "select and attack targets without meaningful human control". That's quoting the summary at the top of this page.

        > All killer robots as is every modern torpedo and missile.

        I'm pretty sure that with "every modern torpedo and missile" a human selects the target and initiates the attack. The definition could be stretched to include certain types of IEDs, though, aka land mines, which are already banned by international law.

        • Anti-ship missiles often pick their target on their own, for example. It wasn't always possible to "select" one.
          • Autonomous missiles - those using their own radar emitters, and IR guided missiles - do indeed acquire their own targets. But they do not autonomously launch, even an anti-ship missile sent on an over-the-horizon attack was vectored toward a known target (or group of targets).

            Of course this means that they may go astray and end up selecting the wrong target. This definitely happens on occasion, though usually the unintended "target" is another military platform in the area. It is alleged (but the truth of t

            • Presumably, autonomous military robots wouldn't have completely free will either and would be launched on human command and into a predetermined target area. In this sense, they're not much different from non-datalinked anti-ship missiles.
        • by lxs ( 131946 ) on Sunday December 18, 2016 @03:02AM (#53506821)

          As for banning landmines.
          There is a landmine treaty which isn't signed by a handful of nations that don't take human rights too seriously. [wikipedia.org] Not surprisingly, the US is on that list, rubbing shoulders with the likes of North Korea, Uzbekistan and Syria.

          After all, maiming civilians is what it's all about for these brave warrior nations.

          • After all, maiming civilians is what it's all about for these brave warrior nations.

            The US uses landmines only along the Korean DMZ, where there are no civilians.

            • After all, maiming civilians is what it's all about for these brave warrior nations.

              The US uses landmines only along the Korean DMZ, where there are no civilians.

              Here is a link to that policy [state.gov]. The is now explicitly in compliance with the Ottawa Treaty (Mine Ban Treaty) with the sole exception of its use on the Korean DMZ, which is a closed, fenced, thoroughly marked, and patrolled military zone where there is no possibility of civilian (or for that matter military) encounter.

              OTOH, the U.S. still uses sea mines, which can sink civilian ships as easily as military ones. Not quite the same problem as land mines, but not completely different either.

          • by Ambassador Kosh ( 18352 ) on Sunday December 18, 2016 @05:50AM (#53507161)

            The USA also uses limited lifetime landmines so they don't stick around after a conflict to keep killing people. I may not like landmines but I understand why they are used and having ones that self destruct is much better than ones that stay around.

            • Unfortunately the U.S. does use cluster bombs in a big way, and "dud" cluster munitions aren't much different from land mines in the civilian safety problem they present.

              Now, it would be possible - and actually straightforward - to make cluster munitions that cannot create a long term safety hazard.

              How? By using insensitive explosives detonated by an exploding bridge wire (EBW), or a "slapper" exploding foil (EF), detonator to directly fire the high explosive, with a circuit that has a designed-in power dra

    • Re:Meh. (Score:4, Interesting)

      by fuzzyfuzzyfungus ( 1223518 ) on Saturday December 17, 2016 @11:06PM (#53506169) Journal

      Like many of the proclamations from the UN, such a ban will have little influence over the development and use of "killer robots".

      Some arms control treaties have been relatively successful; but I wouldn't be optimistic here:

      Somethings are just too convenient to ban; and those are usually a lost cause; but among stuff you can get support for; there seems to be a difference between hardware where you can say 'no legitimate use, period' and hardware where certain uses are forbidden; but there are enough legitimate use cases that the relevant hardware remains in stock, widely available to people relatively low on the food chain, and easily amenable to quiet 'off label' use.

      Military small arms ammunition, say, tends to be pretty reliably jacketed, even disreputable outfits don't tend to produce their own dum-dums and hollowpoints; though irregular forces and police-derived paramilitaries are obviously more likely to be using weapons not concerned with Geneva convention compliance in the first place.

      Stuff with both 'legitimate' and 'illegitimate' uses has been harder to keep a lid on. Phosphorus is a lovely illuminating agent; and produces great smoke; but it's considered poor taste to use it as an incendiary. Hard to make that stick when a large number of people, relatively low on the food chain, have access to it because of its legitimate applications, though.

      In the case of 'killer robots'; the obvious problem is that all the hardware; and much of the software for a 'killer robot' will be identical to that of a 'human directed' robot with some automation of routine navigation stuff; machine-vision-assisted targeting and IFF, and so on. So long as you pinkie-swear that a human will have to press the 'make it so' button; you can develop all the elements, navigation, targeting, etc. that an autonomous killbot would need; but make sure that the firmware running on anything pesky journalists get to see has a human pressing the red button to approve what the autonomous killbot comes up with.

      "Good faith" adherents to a 'no killbots' rule will likely find themselves easing their way toward autonomy with some (admittedly plausible) special cases: "We can't keep a human in the loop for our CIWS/RAM system; human reflexes aren't fast enough for contemporary missile intercept; but don't worry, the CIWS turrets are bolted onto the ship and aren't going to go wandering off." Not false; but an autonomous killbot. Then we'll need an 'emergency defensive protocol' for human-oversight robots that lose their link to HQ, whether to technical failure or hostile jamming; which will be OK; because it's strictly for the robots to engage in defensive actions in their existing location until communication is restored!

      People who don't give a damn, of course, will just stub out the 'ask human for confirmation' part and carry on with their day.

      Aside from this, some lucky logic-chopper is going to have the unenviable task of explaining why existing, more or less universally accepted, 'fire-and-forget' missiles and other similar hardware that gets its activation command from a human; but thereafter guides itself to target without external intervention, isn't a killbot; but the more drone-shaped hardware that gets its initial activation command from a human; but thereafter guides itself to target without external intervention, is a killbot.

      People claiming that diplomatic pressure and arms control conventions are totally useless are seriously exaggerating their case(land mines, chemical, and biological weapons certainly are way down; people have been jumpy about blinding laser weapons, etc.); but there is a lot less room for optimism when you can't draw a bright line around whatever you are trying to ban and declare it and everything similar Off Limits.

      With Killbots, I'm not optimistic: too much of the tech is shared with 100% legit 'human approved, machine assisted' systems; and the excuses to get a foot in the door(even if you care enough about perception of legality to not simply quietly switch off human approval) are too plausible.

      • by Kjella ( 173770 )

        Aside from this, some lucky logic-chopper is going to have the unenviable task of explaining why existing, more or less universally accepted, 'fire-and-forget' missiles and other similar hardware that gets its activation command from a human; but thereafter guides itself to target without external intervention, isn't a killbot; but the more drone-shaped hardware that gets its initial activation command from a human; but thereafter guides itself to target without external intervention, is a killbot.

        I think there difference between a killbot and other systems is that it makes its own target selection, as in what are legitimate targets and how, where and when do you engage them. If the soldiers got their hands up and are waving the white flag they're not legitimate targets even if they wear the enemy's uniform. Will the software consider that they have hostages or human shields? People are going to die, it's not unreasonable to demand a human has to take responsibility for each individual decision. The

    • by cfalcon ( 779563 )

      > such a ban will have little influence over the development and use of "killer robots"

      Correct, what is needed is a treaty. Unfortunately, governments don't normally ban a weapon preemptively. Chemical, biological, nuclear- all had been seen in battle before people banned them to any measurable degree. In this thread, there's plenty of people pointing out the obvious- it would be much safer if there were more ways of projecting force that don't endanger soldiers as much. For this reason alone, autono

  • Yes, a law! (Score:4, Funny)

    by SeaFox ( 739806 ) on Saturday December 17, 2016 @09:46PM (#53505925)

    That will stop those killer robots from killing us.
    If there's one thing Skynet recognizes, it's the authority of the written word.

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Well, yes, actually. Developing high end military killbots requires vast amounts of research, development and funding. If it is illegal to develop such things, most of the countries in a position to resource such an effort will refrain from doing so. Sanctions can be brought against those that ignore the rules.

      It might not stop it ever happening, but it will certainly slow it down. Slowing it down means we have more time to understand the issues and how we can avoid going full Skynet.

      • Re:Yes, a law! (Score:4, Informative)

        by TheRaven64 ( 641858 ) on Sunday December 18, 2016 @08:31AM (#53507479) Journal
        Unfortunately, a lot of that R&D is dual use. Self-driving cars will require the same navigation systems as autonomous robots. Remote-controlled drones will require the same chassis and control hardware as autonomous versions. Even the targeting systems can be developed under the ban: the difference between the system on the Apache that can target and prioritise a few hundred targets for the human gunner and one that then fires at the highest priority targets itself is a couple of lines of code. There isn't much that you need to build an autonomous robot soldier that you don't need for something else that such a treaty would permit. It's then just the final assembly step that's needed, and doing that in secret doesn't need too many people to know about it.
        • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          I see your point but I don't think asking automated killing is a few lines of code. Abby country likely to develop this technology will also want it to at least try to avoid civilians and friendly targets, and account for all the rules of war.

          I'm sure it will happen one day, I'm just saying there is value in delaying it as long as possible.

          • The current mechanism has a human in the loop, but they only have a second or two to decide whether to press the button to fire at the computer-selected targets or not. It's not really long enough to make an informed decision, and the military generally considers accidental civilian casualties that result to be acceptable collateral damage. Having the system make the fire decision would probably cut down PTSD cases, as no human would have hit the kill button the times it hits civilians.
            • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

              Outside of a hot war, I don't think you can justify a system that gives so little opportunity for averting civilian casualties. Especially with the current war on terror, which seems to be where robots are used most often.

  • It's strange how the human race will go through so much effort to define the " rules " of War, when the effort would be better spent on removing War entirely.

    ( yeah I know, sometimes you just gotta bomb the shit out of somebody because their ideals conflict with other ideals and they won't take no for an answer. Example: Sharia Law vs The Civilized World )

    It's rather strange to wrap my head around the idea of being prosecuted for " War Crimes " ( lol wtf . . it's a War ) for killing someone in an unauthor

  • with robot lawyers.
  • I'm sure there are many good references but the only one that comes to mind is voyager S02E13 Prototype.

    You know the one where they end up getting pulled into a war between robots.
    The war ended but the robots kept fighting.

    • There is a reason they add the qualifier to the term Science Fiction.

      • by sims 2 ( 994794 )

        Yeah I just thought it was a more relevant example than terminator.

        In terminator iirc they weren't trying to build an automated weapon they just ended up with an ai that built them after nuking everybody.

        None of the rules they are trying to suggest would even apply to that scenario.

      • Yeah: because it's fiction. But that doesn't mean it's impossible.

        At some point we're going to get to the tech level where we can quite feasibly make robots that could continue fighting each other long after we're dead. We'd better be damn well prepared for that, because if they get out of control they'll be kinda hard to stop.

        Have you ever accidentally fork bombed yourself on a Linux system? No amount of hitting ctrl+c will save you once it's started. When you start making robots that do things in the real

  • 1."Serve the public trust" 2."Protect the innocent" 3."Uphold the law" 4.(Classified) "Never Oppose an OCP Officer"
  • by Black Parrot ( 19622 ) on Saturday December 17, 2016 @10:19PM (#53506025)

    Killer Robots Will Consider Banning UN

  • The powers that be will just find some loophole. Perhaps having the bot phone a human before it fires. A human who will always respond "good to go!".

  • Whoever develops them anyway wins world war 3.

  • We are all safe, now that the UN has banned killer robots. Everyone will surely respect this new ban, just like they respect UN bans against war crimes. I've got a better idea...the UN should ban war! Why do they still allow war anyway???

    • Yep. They should ban killer humans and even killer animals (like some of the big cats and sharks) before banning something that isn't even a problem yet.

    • by argee ( 1327877 )

      Ban Wars? I thought the KOREAN WAR was U.N. vs. "Them"?

  • by Streetlight ( 1102081 ) on Saturday December 17, 2016 @10:49PM (#53506113) Journal
    It's my understanding that the way cruise missiles work is the operator inputs the GPS coordinates of the target and off it goes to the target. The only human input is the target. What's difference between this and and autonomous robot that has various built in systems that do human soldier recognition as the target? Once released each weapon has no human intervention or control.
    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      The same can be said about any bullet, when fired they can not be stopped. This proposal says picking the tearget must involve humans.

  • The US would be at too great a disadvantage if we do not lead the world in combat robots. The US has a tiny population compared to nations such as China or India. That means that in an all out war we would have to use nuclear weapons to survive. We simply can not field anywhere near enough human soldiers. And we also can not afford masses of human soldiers. Deaths and disabilities cost us for many decades after a war ends. We already have drones fighting for us and getting the human out of the l
  • by PPH ( 736903 ) on Saturday December 17, 2016 @11:52PM (#53506323)

    Why not just ban war?

  • Black Mirror.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • We should worry about the concentration of power rather than robots becoming sentient. Sentience is a long ways off, whereas even with the technology today, a single human can command a large number of autonomous drones and missiles. The more autonomy the weapon has, the less the human is required in the loop, which means eventually, a single general or hacker can command the equivalent of the entire armed forces. At that point, who can stop them from starting unnecessary wars or becoming dictators?
  • Nobody will give a shit anyway.

  • "Once these weapons exist, there will be no stopping them. The time to act on a pre-emptive ban is now."

    These weapons already exist, asshole. Sentry Guns have been a thing for over a decade.

  • They likely haven't anything that doesn't kill people.

  • There's more than a few videos out there of ISIS using off the shelf 'toy' drones to drop ordnance people in several conflict zones.

    Sorry UN... Every major power is rolling out their own full military versions of drones, and they have been for years. You've lost that fight before you ever know there was a fight going on.

  • I agree that we should ban killer robots, but only if they arn't from Venus. I think Killer Robots from Venus are A-Ok. Heck, they gave me some zucchini from their garden yesterday!

  • Clearly, the UN doesn't understand the laws of thermodynamics and power source design.

  • And then there are the unintended consequences. ITAR has been around for decades but only in the last few years has it gotten so out of hand that even a standard commercial off-the-shelf screw that you can buy in Home Depot can be considered a controlled item simply because it's part of a complete product that is controlled. What's worse, the powers-that-be want to restrict online discussions of firearms on the grounds that such behavior can be considered technology transfer never mine the fact that that

  • They, through technological means, detect the presence of something that meets a set of parameters which depend on the type of mine. Then they detonate themselves with the goal of destroying whatever it was that triggered them. All without any consent or intervention required by the party that placed it. Oh wait, landmines are already banned by the UN. Well at least they tried.
  • Killer robots will consider banning the UN

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