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Week 10 [08.01-14.01.2018] The dark side of robotics

          The automation, robotics and A.I. are the hot topics and the buzz words over the last few years. Technology in those fields is advancing like never and this brings us closer to transforming our lives into a living paradise. Thanks to much advanced technology we could live to see a world from a sci-fi movie with a strong society living in harmony using the knowledge to do good. Or a dystopian one
Most brightest minds of our time like Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking are warning us about killer robots. What is a killer robot? An autonomous weapon which can target and engage without human intervention. Lets take a peek:

  1. Have you heard about the warning and protests to ban autonomous kill functions in robotics and advanced A.I.?
  2. What is your opinion on swapping human soldiers with killer robots?
  3. As a programmer with a very fine paying job, would you write a software for a killer robot or rather resign from the job?

Comments

sasha | s14611 said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
sasha | s14611 said…
I'd rather resign from the job than write software for it. And I think that such robots should not exist. Why people just can't leave in peace and harmony? Each software can be hacked, soon or later it will happen and what then? It's people killing, not machines, even if machine has AI it was made by people.
Unknown said…
I've never heard of anything like this, but it's awful. I agree with the old man at the end of the video. Robots shouldn't decide who should live and who should die. A.I. is good, but it's not perfect. It makes mistakes. Ant there always would be hackers, bad guys who would like to take power. And yes, this might lead to the situation described in the video.
Unknown said…
What is the point of swapping human soldiers with robots? Weren't wars all about meeting with another army in a field and settling the disputes like men? It would be ridiculous, especially that much more harm could be done to a country by being hacked by another country, instead of having a war. Wars as in armed conflicts are in my opinion useless and irrelevant nowadays.
Unknown said…
Thanks a lot for this very intersting video, which expanded my knowledge about the issue. No, I haven't read any news about protests against autonomous weapon.
I think it would be a revolutionary event and, moreover, I am inclined to believe that such smart weapon has already been implemented by some governments in secret. Let's just think about UAVs or drones. It has been widely used by American intelligence agency for a couple of years and these drones have killed many Talibs in Afghanistan.
Frankly speaking, I would deny doing such work, because I am afraid of the fact this smart weapon would escape from human's control and scenario of uprising of robots seems to be not fantastic
Unknown said…
I am pretty sure people who made all kind of bombs were working for science, not for money :)
Robots should not decide who to kill, but robots controlled by a person could. There should be no wars, but robotic war would be less brutal than right now...
I heard a lot about it and i'm still fascinated how they reach this level in A.I.
It will be a disaster,come on! I'm against swapping human soldiers with killer robots,it is not a game, it is a real life. There are a huge amount of examples, how robots do not listen to their owners and destroy everything.
Definitely,i would better resign from this job,as i said, it's not a game and all the kills will be on your conscience.
Unknown said…
Thanks for the interesting video, and would be better if each company gave the money to charity, medication for patients or cancer drugs, help for find a work for everyone.... And if it was, people won't commit a crime. But yes, each country wanna have a weapon and war...
Unknown said…
I think that we shouldn't create any autonomous robots that can harm a human. It is possible that we won't be able to control them. If armies really want to create such a thing I propose to create robots that are controlled by a human operators. Then every war would look like a big video game or a kindergarten where kids play with their toys.
I would resign. Or I would accept the offer and then create a hidden function that would destroy all the death machines. I like to fantasise ;)
Unknown said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said…
A.I. is as good as people which creates it and governments aren't always the good guys unfortunately.
Thanks for the comment.
Unknown said…
Exactly, why not end poverty and hunger instead of investing in and developing weapons?
As for software, on example soft created by NSA to hack and spy on people leaked and now everyone has access to it.
Thanks for the comment.
Unknown said…
Meeting in a field and settling disputes like men is kinda old school nowadays ;) We moved on, developed fantastic technology and use it to settle those disputes now...
Thanks for the comment.
Unknown said…
I agree but drones are still only partially autonomous, there has to be human controlling it to pull the trigger, giving a direct order. There's always a risk that killer robots would go rouge or be hacked and turned against its creators.
Thanks for the comment.
Unknown said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said…
Yeah great example of "working for science" and its result is a nuclear weapon. But this was kinda different time. Today we have much more advanced and sophisticated technology, question is how will we use it.
Robotic war would be more of a which technology is more advanced and who has greater economic advantage to produce it. But consider less developed country without killer robots and a country having it. A massacare, robots don't stutter or hesitate...
Thanks for the comment.
Unknown said…
I like the comparison to the game. It is real life, yes and it has real consequences.
Thanks for the comment.
Unknown said…
Reminds me of a quote:
"Take all that money we spend on weapons and defenses each year and instead spend it feeding and clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would pay for many times over, not one human being excluded, and we could explore space, together, both inner and outer, forever, in peace."
- Bill Hicks
Sounds too idealistic but also true and doable nowadays.
Thanks for the comment.
Unknown said…
Haha, so called kill-switch for disabling the robot, nice ;)
Unfortunately there are already drones flying and killing people being controlled by a human operator.
Thanks for the comment.
Maciej Główka said…
I've heard about Musk, Hawking and other specialists warn us about A.I. They have some point. A.I development increased so much in recent years and we should start thinking about some restrictions.
Should we swap soldiers with killer robots? On one hand, that would cause less people to die during conflicts. On the other hand, I don't feel very well knowing, that a robot could kill me. That's why, as a developer, I would refuse to write a code for such robot.
Unknown said…
Oh boy, I've seen a little similar topic at the start of the course, so I'm going to develop my thoughts on this topic. The probles is not that robots will have a possibility to kill, which is a rude violation of Three Laws of Robotics, by the way, the problem is that people, who are in charge of such robots, will abuse the killing machines on their own purposes. You can't tell human soldier to decimate every civillian in the city just to intimidate enemy's soldiers. But you can do it with the machines.

I don't think that the video, you've attached is about real events. It looks like the episode from "Black Mirror" (by the way, in season 4 there was episode about robots killing humans), and it just give me the creeps. If we start developping such things, this will be the start of our end.
Ad. 1. I’ve heard about that issues. These are the activities which should be banned like all the destroying other ones in “real world”. As long as people don’t understand their “damaging” influence spreading this way surround them – in my opinion it should be forbidden, so as everybody could get used to the idea of proper thinking. I mean, good habits provoke good behavior.
Ad. 2. I am definitely against the war as an idea of solving the problems, so I am also against such swapping the human soldiers with “killer robots”. What’s more, alive people have worse chances to win and survive, if they are fighting with robots. Robots can be produced without limits, that’s the main advantage of such “swapping”.
Ad. 3. If I had such task, I guess I’d rather resign a job. Having well-payed programming skills, you can always find a job, where nobody can make you do the things you don’t want to do. And I think it can be observed in the moment you start your work – I mean you should know, what your company is able to require from you, you shouldn’t be surprised further, it is always coherent with the philosophy of organization and its authorities.
Ive heard warnings about "killer ai" and " killer robots" although i havent seen or heard about any protests but dhese days ppl protest over everything weather they have influence over it or not. What im concerned is that there is no such thing as ban on autonomous "kill functions" because noone with malicious intent will ever subdue to the ban. Why would they? Those protests are plain stupid. What we must do is warn poeple about consequences of digitalization, consequences of them giving up their privacy and them being dependant on technology to function properly.
Killer robots, killer robots that term is wrong on so many levels - next u will have to write about killer guns... Worst about it is that while u all docus on killer robots actual killing capable robot mighbt be size of a toaster, look like toaster, have functions of a toaster and being able to poison you on demand.
Dont see a problem with writting software for machinery capable of killing a pearson on demand.
Andrzej Gulak said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said…
I haven't heard about protests for not implementing "kill functions" in robotics. I think it would be in some situations a good idea to swap human with killer robots. For example a soldier who is fighting with some bad people could send a robot who would kill few bad people before being destroyed. I would write a software for robot to kill people. Not for good salary, but for gaining good experience. It would include many new technologies.
Unknown said…
>Have you heard about the warning and protests to ban autonomous “kill functions” in robotics and advanced A.I.?
Yup, they were right behind the guys with tinfoil hats on their heads, and the ones protesting against illuminati and lizard-people.

>What is your opinion on swapping human soldiers with killer robots?
It's a good way to go for modern warfare - a 100% obedient and versatile robot, without any feelings, "made to get the job done". I know it may sound ruthless, but in the end it boils down to "who will be put in a coffin- a soldier coming from a mission, who was trained, equipped with state of the art tech and who had a family he fought to protect, or some random bad-guy"

>As a programmer with a very fine paying job, would you write a software for a killer robot or rather resign from the job?
Why not? If it would be my job then why wouldn't I? Its the "I won't sell you contraception pills BECAUSE ITS BAD"-theme v2.0...
Massively overestimation of how much processing power needed for AI. The power of Alexa is in the massive data centre it connects to via WiFi. Without this connection it is nothing. That means that a terrorist organisation would not only need to steal the technology, but also hide a data centre spanning hundreds of acres and even then simply blocking/flooding radio frequency would stop them in their tracks.
What is there to even protest about? It doesn't matter at all, humanity created such dangerous weapon like all biological weapons we know, with nuclear weapons on top of that, and people now rebel because somebody is developing robots? I'd like to order two tinfoil hats please.

It doesn't matter at all what people say in this matter. People NEVER had any say in any kind of war rules, because war is much higher above all of them. If such robot army is deemed as needed to ensure safety of the nation, then it will be done regardless of how much people are afraid of it, and then potentially used also aggressively. This is the same thing as police and the army - everybody believes they're here for safety, but if need arises they can quickly switch the mode to aggression as well.

In any case, nothing of this matters. I believe those people should do something else rather than protesting against killer robots. Or... go protest, and wait for China or other North Korea to develop such robots first, then you'll protest when government forces you to learn new language in next 5 years :).
I haven’t heard about the protests to ban “killing robots”, to be honest I first heard of it when I saw this video, couple of weeks ago. I think that killer robots will, eventually take a huge part in military actions in the future. To be honest, now I think that I would totally resign from the job, but I don’t really know what would I do, if I would be in this situation.
Unknown said…
1)Nope i never have heard of it but it might be because i'm not interested in robots.
2)Terminator scenario here we go? But seriously it might not change a thing.
3) Hell yea i would. I'd give it a security hole so that i could controll it or that it would never attack me.
Marcin Górski said…
No, I have never heard about it.
I think that we shouldn't have human soldiers because it's only robot. We can't trust them in 100% . Additionally, In my opinion it is unreal at least in my life :P
About last question? I think that I would resign my job. I don't want to take a part in anything which has something in common with death/

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