AN MIT artificial intelligence and weapons researcher warns that a kind of “slaughterbot” may soon be in the hands of drug cartels.
AI expert and MIT professor Max Tegmark told TheNextWeb that militaries are already in the process of turning weaponized robots into a reality.
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“They’ll be small, cheap and light like smartphones, and incredibly versatile and powerful,” Tegmark said.
These killer robots might seem innovative to some, but to others, they might do more harm than good, especially if they fall into the wrong hands.
“If you can buy slaughterbots for the same price as an AK-47, that’s much preferable for drug cartels, because you’re not going to get caught anymore when you kill someone,” Tegmark said.
“Even if a judge has lots of bodyguards, you can fly in through a bedroom window while they’re sleeping and kill them,” he continued.
According to Tegmark and other researchers, this type of A.I. technology is already posing a threat to civilians, still, their production is facing little opposition from the U.S. government.
Along with Russia and China, the U.S has expressed just ahead of a United Nations conference that it does not want to completely ban the “legal autonomous weapons” (LAWs), even if the experts disagree.
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“It’s clearly not in the national security interest of these countries to legalize super-powerful weapons of mass destruction,” Tegmark said.
Activists are also apathetic about the U.S.’s proposal to develop “a non-binding code of conduct,” which would outline principles of use, but not enforce them legally.
Senior military and defense leaders have stated in the past that the United States “may be compelled to develop LAWS in the future if U.S. competitors choose to do so,” according to a congressional report.
A similar type of technology already exists on the battlefield in the form of autonomous drones.
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In other news, Samsung is reportedly killing off its beloved Note smartphone after more than a decade.
Apple has announced that it will let customers fix their own iPhones for the first time starting next year.
And the UK is fighting an epidemic of hack attacks targeting consumers and businesses, according to officials.
