[vox_mundi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AgentR11', '.').. What does the world look like when the entire real national production of the United States is accomplished by the action of 1,000 humans and the robotic and computational tools at their command?

[vox_mundi]

Killer robots. Invisible drones: not science fiction any more. Welcome to war.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'G')iving your soldiers superior technology has always been a significant factor in winning wars, but now it's the technology itself threatening to do the killing.

Autonomous killer robots that can hunt down humans and make their own decisions about who to exterminate are not science fiction or a problem for the future. They are a threat now.

Any doubt about that can be removed by reading US Department of Defence budgets covering the past 12 years and by talking to scientists at the forefront of military-funded research. Having done so, the following scenario becomes frighteningly real.

As the 2011 US defence research budget makes clear, the military's "robust robotics" program has been developing techniques that enable robotic agents to achieve effective levels of autonomous reasoning "whether humans are present or not".

In fact, earlier budgets show the US military has been developing autonomous hunter-killer weapons, robot learning and reasoning technologies, unmanned combat armed rotorcraft and drone swarms for more than a decade.

The 2016 budget outlines a newer strand of research. It shows the military developing "hybrid biological-computational platforms" and new approaches for using physiological and neural signals to make human-machine systems more efficient. It also warns that ...
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]... Current modelling approaches are heavily reliant on human insight and expertise, but the complexity of these models is growing exponentially and has now, or will soon, exceed the capacity for human comprehension - 2016 DARPA Budget - pg 25/308 - Big Mechanism program

[AgentR11]

What's interesting to me is that none of these types of systems are high-dollar in their production form. By that, I mean, individually, the little bots are really nothing special; its the organic, networked software system that is the significant development. This presents a problem from the security side, in that it only takes one lapse, and not only does North Korea catch up; but they get your code base to spend umpteen bajillion hours analyzing for vulnerabilities.

So not only do you have the "Terminator/Skynet" risk, along side just regular error risk; you also have the risk that some North Korean twerp will have just the right virus stored on his gear to deliver, to muck up the works with one tap of a key. And even if our program's security is top notch, and error free; do you trust the Russians to be as careful with theirs? Or the Chinese? India? All have substantial numbers of top notch mathematicians, computer scientists, and mechanical engineers. Most of this stuff is talked about in the associated academic journals. Its not particularly super-secret stuff.

We do beat the snot out of all of them in matching the tech side to the finance and investing side; but the tech itself is neither magic, nor unique.

[Newfie]

I don’t much like Kissinger but found myself reading this article on AI and considering his words. I need to reread it to take in his entire position. Some interesting insights.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/ar ... ry/559124/

[KaiserJeep]

I am at least a hobbyist when it comes to AI - an EE with 35+ years experience in computing, even longer a fan of SF, and I now (being a retired member) have access to the IEEE pubs on the subject.

I do NOT subscribe to the theory that AI forms any kind of a hazard for humans. In fact I would give 99% probability to the scenario that humans and AI's will form partnerships that benefit both. I would give 0.9% probability that fearful humans will be successful at stopping AI developments. I would give 0.1%, or 1 in 1000 odds that AI's would in any way harm humans of their own accord (and a somewhat higher probability that AI controlled mechanical systems would be used by some humans to harm others). (In fact, drones and autonomous gun platforms are already in use.)

Virtually everything can be abused by hateful humans. Fear of such abuse does not constitute an excuse to stop technological progress in any field.

[Tanada]

Just for you KJ, the Chinese news agency has launched an AI news reader.

https://omny.fm/shows/the-jeff-fisher-s ... -anchor-bo

[Subjectivist]

Great so next we will get Termnator doing TSA strip search body cavity exams?

[Cog]

I know of no robot that can take a 30.06 AP round to the chest and survive it. That bullet will go through 3/4 inch armor plate. Frankly, I'm a bit disappointed in the robots I've seen demonstrated. They are made of sheet metal, plastic, and exposed wiring and hydraulics. Hardly the thing of sci-fi horrors just yet.

[careinke]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cog', 'I') know of no robot that can take a 30.06 AP round to the chest and survive it. That bullet will go through 3/4 inch armor plate. Frankly, I'm a bit disappointed in the robots I've seen demonstrated. They are made of sheet metal, plastic, and exposed wiring and hydraulics. Hardly the thing of sci-fi horrors just yet.