London-based charity Landmine Action wants autonomous robots capable of killing people banned under the same kind of treaty that has outlawed landmines in over 150 countries. According to the New Scientist it is the first time a high profile non-governmental organisation has campaigned against such a technology. This campaign follows the reasoning of Noel Sharkey, who condemned these automation plans earlier this year.

As I’ve written before, the robots in use by the military nowadays (and the next years) are almost fully automatic, but so far the trigger has still to be pulled by a human soldier. However, it is only a question of time until the software is strong enough so that this decision will be made entirely by the machine. And once the software is in place, there will be no ethical opposition - at least in the US Department of Defence, who wants them in future to work without supervision.

A reaction to this news article comes from Wired, where the idea of danger through war robots is dismissed:

But to argue as if this is in the here or now, or even in the next decade, is just plain silly. The Pentagon has not only never advocated taking the man-out-the-loop of targeting decisions for drones or robots, its current policies and procedures would prohibit such a move (some might argue that international law already prohibits autonomous armed drones). [...] Unless and until those policies are drastically altered, it’s safe to say we are safe from renegade Terminators.

To completely ignore the threat by robots with weapons and justifying this ignorance by saying that these robots are still science fiction and it will take decades until these robots appear seems a bit strange to me, especially as Wired itself has reported about existing armed robots before. It is exactly this ignorance and belief that everything is so far away that allows organisations like the military to push these developments without any opposition.

Furthermore, I think it is a little blue-eyed to think that the control of weapons mounted on otherwise fully automated robots will remain in human hands just because the Pentagon does not admit of having plans that say otherwise. By arguing that international law might already prohibit autonomous armed drones and at the same time clearly seeing that these very drones are being used by the U.S. Army in Iraq right now, Wired maneuvers itself on very thin ice. I don’t think it can support the arguments that promises, laws and policies are sufficient enough to protect us from a - what Wired deems nonexistant - danger. And heck, what is so bad about protesting against future dangers as opposed to only trying to fight seeing the effects of existing weapons like landmines in hindsight?

I think it is about time that more voices are raised against automating war machinery, and the Landmine Action has taken a step in the right direction. If it will be heard by the military - and the U.S. Army is without doubt on the forefront of research towards this automation - is a completely different matter. So far, I think the chances are still slim, to specify I say it lowers the AI Panic Level by -0.1%.

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