Killer Robots: No Longer the Stuff of Hollywood and Close to Being Real

One of the oldest Hollywood plot lines is "Machine Conquers Humans." It has been recycled so many times throughout the years because of one reason: It works. People seem to have at least given some thought to the dangers of machines becoming self-aware and killing people, whether it's computers, Terminators, or Johnny Depp. However, if people truly do live with a fear of machines taking over the world, they sure have an odd way of showing it. Sometimes it seems as though we're encouraging it.

As you've no doubt heard by now, drones and other autonomous robots are all the rage within the military community. Our government uses them. Practically every developed country uses them. According to some critics, that's exactly the problem. Drone use has outpaced drone regulations, and we now find ourselves on the verge of something quite dangerous.

"Just as the emergence of low-cost, high-performance information technology has been the most important driver of technological advance over the past half-century — including the revolution in military affairs already seen in the 1980s and displayed to the world during the 1991 Gulf War — so the emergence of artificial intelligence and autonomous robotics will likely be the most important development in both civilian and military technology to unfold over the next few decades," explains Mark Gubrud in the latest issue of Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (the journal was originally founded by scientists who had worked on the Manhattan project and is intended to inform the public on the threats to world peace).

The pacing of robot creation is also outpacing public outrage. But even though as Gubrud point out in his article that "public opinion runs strongly against killer robots," the government is firing back by dragging out Cold War style propaganda. They're saying "Yes, robots are dangerous, but we need them in times like these." It's because of arguments like those that Gubrud writes that "substantial pressure from civil society will be needed before major powers will seriously consider their prohibition."

Military officials, of course, see no problems with killer robots. In fact, they want to take things a step further. Currently, drones with lethal capabilities require human control to work properly. In the future, the robots will operate completely on their own. "The rules of engagement will most likely be that a target would be defined, and then a particular time frame and area would be identified where the system would make its own decisions," Professor Michael Clarke, Britain's director-general of the Royal United Services Institute, told the British newspaper The Telegraph back in November.

And it's not just the military that is pursuing killer robots. Recently, a hacker conference called Defcon announced a new round of its Deconbots contest, with the winner building an autonomous robot that could shoot a gun. The first round of Defconbots asked participants to create a robot that could pick up a ping pong ball. This year's contest is essentially asking people to create something that will have drone fans (especially the military) drooling.

The worst part about the race for killer robots is that there is no finish line in sight. We've only just begun to see what robots can do and sadly this race will likely have no winners.

[Image via Flickr - Julian Frost]