Dear US Air Force,
STOP GIVING ROBOTS THE POWER TO KILL HUMAN BEINGS!
Yours sincerely, the rest of the species.
(Via Darryl Mason)
Elsewhere
Dear US Air Force,
STOP GIVING ROBOTS THE POWER TO KILL HUMAN BEINGS!
Yours sincerely, the rest of the species.
(Via Darryl Mason)
Moved On 
“a munitions payload to engage time-sensitive fleeting targets in complex environments”
my new favourite quote.
Methinks Skynet^H^H^H^H^H^H^H the US Air Force is not going to listen to these pleas…
Anything that keeps our troops safe whilst inflicting badness on the other guy is fine by me. Just keep in the fail-safe human-in-the-loop requirement.
Besides, robots make lousy hostages.
Personally I can’t see the difference between using robots or humans to kill others, the end result is the same and the proliferation of robots is inevitable. A more appropriate plea would be to stop waging war!
Jeremy,
this drone is in no way autonomous, the operator makes the decision to kill so it is by no stretch of the definition a “killer robot”. Ethically it is no different than a soldier throw a grenade or firing a rifle and it looks far less likely to kill the innocent than conventional small arms fire.
why are robots so unkind?
Iain, the wired article refers to “robots”, so your assumption may not actually be correct.
But if it is, the robot is still killing with remotely-sent electronic commands. It’s not a big step to having it start killing things on its own – it’s got the tools.
“In 2002’s notorious “Tall Man incident,” CIA operatives unleashed a Hellfire at an individual near Zhawar Kili in Afghanistan’s Paktia province. His unusual height convinced the drone controllers that the man was Bin Laden (who stands 6 feet, 5 inches). In fact, he was merely an innocent (if overgrown) Afghan peasant. ”
so…did anyone go to jail for this murder? how can this be reported with no consequences… are tall afganis considered “untermenchen”?
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