Somebody posted on Twitter a screenshot of a conspiracy theory which says, “What if Elon Musk is a time traveler from the future who is getting rich by pretending to invent future technology, but is also warning us about the future deadly killer robot wars that caused him to flee to the past in the first place?”
This post was tagged to Elon Musk’s Twitter handle and the CEO replied, “I can’t hide the truth any more.”
A funny gesture, yeah, but there is more to Musk’s quest to ban the use of killer robots. And he is dead serious about it.
He just joined a group of prominent robotics and artificial intelligence researchers to create a mandate through the United Nations in prohibiting the development and use of robotics weapons.
The organization, which involves 116 specialists from 26 countries, warned in a letter that the use of autonomous weapons could usher in the “third revolution in warfare.”
The letter reads, “Once developed, lethal autonomous weapons will permit armed conflict to be fought at a scale greater than ever, and at timescales faster than humans can comprehend.
“These can be weapons of terror, weapons that despots and terrorists use against innocent populations, and weapons hacked to behave in undesirable ways,” it warns.
“We do not have long to act. Once this Pandora’s box is opened, it will be hard to close.”
Musk, who is the co-founder and chairman of OpenAI, a tech firm dedicated in developing safe artificial intelligence, has been active in the advocacy of preventing killer robots.
Photo by Redux
In 2014, he agreed with Stephen Hawking who said, “Artificial intelligence could be a real danger in the not too distant future.” Musk later coined AI to be humanity’s biggest existential threat.
Now, it seems that the UN has finally listened.
After the open letter made rounds, the intergovernmental organization voted to begin formal discussions on autonomous weapons including drones, tanks, and automated machine guns. A much needed move before deadly robots become the leader of the apocalypse.
Source: The Guardian
