Politicians call for ban on 'killer robots' because of military AI risks

The world's leading politicians have issued warnings about the dangers of using artificial intelligence for military purposes and called for restrictions to prevent the emergence of fully autonomous "killer robots".

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Opening a conference on the issue in Vienna, Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg compared the current situation to the moment when the first atomic bomb was created. He called for "human control" over AI weapon systems.

"At least let us make sure that the most profound and far-reaching" he added.

Mirjana Spoljaric Egger, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, expressed similar concerns. Without human involvement, she said, it would be impossible to enforce humanitarian law in the use of such weapons.

Bangladesh Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud emphasised that AI has huge potential for science and development and these areas should be prioritised over building weapons.

The conference also warned of the dangers of AI weapons proliferation and even the possibility of them falling into the hands of terrorists, given the relative affordability of such technologies compared to nuclear weapons.

Experts fear that in the future, AI systems could gain the ability to distinguish people by ethnicity, increasing the risk of genocide.

However, some politicians have expressed cautious optimism about the possibility of international regulation of military AI, citing precedents for banning other weapons of mass destruction.

Source: The Register