In a recent interview withThe Next Web , MIT Professor and founder of theFuture of Life InstituteMax Tegmark has made some desperate predictions about the future uses of militarized robot , and the ideas paint a forbidding depiction of future warfare . Talking about low , weaponized , autonomous drones and robots , Tegmark suggests that once " slaughterbots " are fully originate by the armed forces , it is only a matter of time before civilians can get their hand on them , as they do with so many other weapons . In the wrong hands – such as drug trust – these bots will open up a gateway of gaudy and almost unstoppable targeted assassination onto whoever they select , he said , adding that governments need to step in now before that dystopian scenario becomes reality .
“ If you could buy slaughterbots for the same price as an AK-47 , that ’s much preferable for drug combine , because you ’re not going to get hitch any longer when you vote out someone , ” say Tegmark , talk to TNW .
“ It ’s also much more effective for penetrating defenses . Even if a judge has lots of bodyguards , you may fly in through a chamber window while they ’re kip and kill them … And it ’s going to go far beyond that . Because pretty soon anyone who wants to knock off anyone for any cause will be able to do this . ”
Unfortunately , Earth loss leader do not see eye - to - centre with the use of automate killer golem . In aGeneva meetinglast week , The United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons held a debate on whether autonomous weapons without substantial human control should be banned , andfailed to give a consensus . Instead , they plainly agreed to " continue talks " .
Such talk have now been ongoing for eight years , but the pressure has mounted since anautonomous weaponized drone trace downand possibly pop human beings in the first attack of its kind last March . The subsequent report suggest that during ‘ Operation PEACE STORM ’ ( ironic , we know ) , a laggard discover and engaged a human aim , diving at them and detonating onboard explosive . envisage such artillery in the hands of civilians , it is not hard to see why Tegmark is afraid of the future of automated robots .
“ The biggest losers from this are going to be nation that are militarily dominant , because these weapons are incredibly flash , ” Tegmark continued .
“ They ’ll be little , chintzy and light like smartphones , and implausibly various and herculean . It ’s clearly not in the national security system interest of these countries to legalize super - powerful weapons of mass death . ”
For now , the UN will reconvene and continue talks in the area , in the Bob Hope of touch an understanding .
