statism watch

An army of automated hunter-killer units would enable a discrete power base to maintain control of an insurgent population without all the fuss and mess of maintaining conscience-ridden human troops in a warzone. Something tells me we’re not talking about writing Asimov’s Laws into these mercenary droids.

Tim Shipman, Telegraph UK
December 1, 2008

The US Army and Navy have both hired experts in the ethics of building machines to prevent the creation of an amoral Terminator-style killing machine that murders indiscriminately.

By 2010 the US will have invested $4 billion in a research programme into “autonomous systems”, the military jargon for robots, on the basis that they would not succumb to fear or the desire for vengeance that afflicts frontline soldiers.

A British robotics expert has been recruited by the US Navy to advise them on building robots that do not violate the Geneva Conventions.

Colin Allen, a scientific philosopher at Indiana University’s has just published a book summarising his views entitled Moral Machines: Teaching Robots Right From Wrong.

He told The Daily Telegraph: “The question they want answered is whether we can build automated weapons that would conform to the laws of war. Can we use ethical theory to help design these machines?”

Pentagon chiefs are concerned by studies of combat stress in Iraq that show high proportions of frontline troops supporting torture and retribution against enemy combatants.

Ronald Arkin, a computer scientist at Georgia Tech university, who is working on software for the US Army has written a report which concludes robots, while not “perfectly ethical in the battlefield” can “perform more ethically than human soldiers.”

He says that robots “do not need to protect themselves” and “they can be designed without emotions that cloud their judgment or result in anger and frustration with ongoing battlefield events”.

Airborne drones are already used in Iraq and Afghanistan to launch air strikes against militant targets and robotic vehicles are used to disable roadside bombs and other improvised explosive devices.

Last month the US Army took delivery of a new robot built by an American subsidiary of the British defence company QinetiQ, which can fire everything from bean bags and pepper spray to high-explosive grenades and a 7.62mm machine gun.

But this generation of robots are all remotely operated by humans. Researchers are now working on “soldier bots” which would be able to identify targets, weapons and distinguish between enemy forces like tanks or armed men and soft targets like ambulances or civilians.

Their software would be embedded with rules of engagement conforming with the Geneva Conventions to tell the robot when to open fire.

Dr Allen applauded the decision to tackle the ethical dilemmas at an early stage. “It’s time we started thinking about the issues of how to take ethical theory and build it into the software that will ensure robots act correctly rather than wait until it’s too late,” he said.

“We already have computers out there that are making decisions that affect people’s lives but they do it in an ethically blind way. Computers decide on credit card approvals without any human involvement and we’re seeing it in some situations regarding medical care for the elderly,” a reference to hospitals in the US that use computer programmes to help decide which patients should not be resuscitated if they fall unconscious.

Dr Allen said the US military wants fully autonomous robots because they currently use highly trained manpower to operate them. “The really expensive robots are under the most human control because they can’t afford to lose them,” he said.

“It takes six people to operate a Predator drone round the clock. I know the Air Force has developed software, which they claim is to train Predator operators. But if the computer can train the human it could also ultimately fly the drone itself.”

Some are concerned that it will be impossible to devise robots that avoid mistakes, conjuring up visions of machines killing indiscriminately when they malfunction, like the robot in the film Robocop.

Noel Sharkey, a computer scientist at Sheffield University, best known for his involvement with the cult television show Robot Wars, is the leading critic of the US plans.

He says: “It sends a cold shiver down my spine. I have worked in artificial intelligence for decades, and the idea of a robot making decisions about human termination is terrifying.”

Source | See Also under Militarization: Hoverdrone to be deployed to Iraq | Police will use new device to take fingerprints in street, vendors say face scanning next | Germany rejects full-body scans at airports | Pentagon Wants Packs Of Robots To Detect “Non-cooperative Humans” | Interpol wants facial recognition database to catch suspects | Army Orders Pain Ray Trucks; New Report Shows ‘Potential for Death’ | Tasers being used for pain compliance during interrogation, suit alleges | New surveillance program will turn military satellites on US | Representatives Were Threatened With Martial Law In America Over Bailout Bill | American Rail Passengers Subject to Random Searches, Police Presence | ‘Pre-crime’ detector shows promise | Secret killing program is key in Iraq, Woodward says | Troops in the Streets: Army Brigades Standing By to Assist in Disasters, Help Quell Dissent |  NYC Residents Furious over Invasive Surveillance Grid | Rounded up into torture camps: the ‘undesirables’ China doesn’t want you to see | Kids to Help Create Drones, ‘Fuzzy’ Line to Be Drawn between Military and Civil Spheres | News crew crashes Denver’s DNC ‘concentration camp’ | Unmanned spy planes to police Britain | Troops patrolling Italian cities alongside police | Saskatchewan adopting US-mandated ID card, to include RFID chip, facial recognition | Eye scans, fingerprints to control NZ borders | Turning Toronto into a nanny state | Drivers licences with chips spark heated debate | UK Surveillance Commissioner calls for intelligence officers to work with municipalities | Illinois governor suggests National Guard help with Chicago gun crime | Toronto artist seeks explanation for police raid | RCMP conducts random search and seizure on Canada Day | TASER bracelets considered for airline passengers | Papers Please: UK cops stopping millions in streets | Air passengers to undergo ‘virtual strip search’ | US Counterinsurgency Manual Leaked, Calls for False Flag Operations, Suspension of Human Rights | Final Skynet satellite launched | Youth Worker Subjected to Warrantless Raid on Secret Evidence | Tanks, Face-Scanning Cameras Part of ‘Discreet’ 2010 Games Security | Tasers pose risk to heart, MDs testify | Peel and Stick’ Tasers Electrify Riot Control | Israel startup uses behavioral science to identify terrorists | Machine Gun-Toting Officers To Patrol NYC Subway | Chicago study calls Taser’s safety claims into question | Tasers: the next generation | Austin police testing unmanned spy drones | Nunavut taken aback by military plan for drone patrols | U.S. to patrol Manitoba border with drone aircraft | DARPA investing in super-soldier technology | RCMP, U.S. Army block public forum on the Security and Prosperity Partnership | Fascist America, in 10 easy steps | Revolution, flashmobs, and brain chips. A grim vision of the future | Harper pledges to boost military presence in cities | Project Paperclip: The US Nazi Amnesty | Ontario Police Chiefs travel to Israel to study police tactics | Much of Britain sprayed in secret germ warfare tests

This entry was posted on Monday, December 1st, 2008 at 3:33 pm and is filed under accountability, militarization. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.