[Synapse elist] Warbots

[Vicki]

Hello all

Whilst not engaging with the issues raised so far, I thought the following
story raises some interesting questions.. What happens when the holy grail
of robotic autonomy is achieved and deployed towards political and
militaristic ends... Or, put another way: can robots commit war crimes?

Cheers
Vicki


http://www.dailytech.com/Iraqi+War+Robots+Recalled+Following+Alarming+Behavi
or/article11456.htm
 
FIRST GENERATION WARBOTS DEPLOYED IN IRAQ RECALLED AFTER A WAVE OF
DISOBEDIENCE AGAINST THEIR HUMAN OPERATORS

Just a few weeks back there was a spirited debate over the ethics of
deploying war robots in Iraq.  The machine gun carrying remote-controlled
killing machines, TALON SWORDS robots, produced by the Army, were among the
various robotic soldiers being experimentally deployed in Iraq.

Their deployment lead a major anti-landmine nonprofit organization to
campaign against the deployment of the machines.  The protests were fueled
by a discussion with a leading roboticist, Chris Elliot, who proposed that
increasingly intelligent robots might be capable of committing war crimes.

...[more]...