Don’t Be Evil: Google Employees, Academics Call For Boycott Of 'Killer Robots'

[Lucian Armasu]

Google employees are outraged that the company is developing AI technology for Pentagon's drone operations, warning about misuse. At the same time, over 50 academics and AI expert started to boycott KAIST over its own development of killer robots.

Don’t Be Evil: Google Employees, Academics Call For Boycott Of 'Killer Robots' : Read more

 

[10tacle]

So they are upset about robotics and warfare. How quaint. I find this rather ironic coming from a group of employees who openly support censorship and algorithm biases on the Google search engine regarding politics and spying on users. REAL ironic indeed considering that's how Hitler rose to power.

 

[stefano.n.giaimo]

Thank goodness we're onto Killer Robots, and have already solved the issue of forced political/ideological indoctrination going on there at Google... Oh wait, it was never brought to light.

(F) James Damore

 

[USAFRet]

Google (Alphabet)...the company that bought Boston Dynamics (Big Dog, Cheetah, Little Dog, Atlas, etc, etc) back in 2013.
And only sold them last year.

Go on...tell me that Big Dog code does not still exist in Google somewhere.
Go on...blow some more smoke up my butt.

 

[popatim]

I believe it's past the point where this will do any good. They will have no problems filling empty seats for any who want to leave and potentially be blacklisted. Once Ai can code well, even those will be relegated to the farming camps, so such.

 

[JonDol]

Almost like in the Robocop movie. Those academics seem just a bit late. Afaik, Samsung has already deployed those kind of robots to watch the border with the North Korea...

 

[jimmysmitty]

So they are upset about robotics and warfare. How quaint. I find this rather ironic coming from a group of employees who openly support censorship and algorithm biases on the Google search engine regarding politics and spying on users. REAL ironic indeed considering that's how Hitler rose to power.

I am all for militaries pushing to robotics for warfare instead of having to sacrifice human lives.

 

[nobspls]

The unfortunate truth here is that even if the "ethical" bans killer robots/AI etc., it is not going to stop Russia or China. If your killer robots do not cut it against theirs, you are screwed, unless you want to invoke the nuke all the time, which is obviously not a viable strategy.

The day the first machine gun/gattling gun went live, the automated killing of humans came into existence. Industrialized mechanized warfare is plenty horrible as has been witnessed many times. The step into AI powered weapons is just the next step of this progression. Problem is that it is already a century too late to stop.

 

[Evolution2001]

So they are upset about robotics and warfare. How quaint. I find this rather ironic coming from a group of employees who openly support censorship and algorithm biases on the Google search engine regarding politics and spying on users. REAL ironic indeed considering that's how Hitler rose to power.

Wow... Godwin's Law applied on the very first post!
A sarcastic tip of my hat to you!

 

[10tacle]

Wow... Godwin's Law applied on the very first post! A sarcastic tip of my hat to you!

But the comparison doesn't make it less true no matter how trite and overused. Okay let's change things up. How about Google fan Lenin useful idiots? (Same with Facebook).

 

[nimbao6]

I believe shaped EMP's outside your home and shielded electronics inside will protect you from weaponized drones... The shielding will be too heavy to put on small drones. As for walking/rolling killer AI's ... well, a good police force will stop those.

 

[electro_neanderthal]

Well, I'm not surprised, however ironic the situation is.

"Let's make tracking and decision-making software/hardware because we want to track people. This is good because we have more control."

Then they realize it's being used to harm/control people they like (or even themselves in the future) and want to stop... this realization comes years later. As much as I want to be surprised at this shortsightedness, I can't be. These (usually left-wing, but not always) people behind the giants in tech are always hypocritical, to the point where they can't even see the ramifications until they end up in the shoes they put others in.

On some of the other thoughts I've seen in the replies:

I don't think a lot of people realize that drones don't need to get close to kill people. An EMP would actually do more harm to the defender in that case... unless you could shoot EMPs at drones. But even then, anything not grounded to earth and surrounded by metal acts as a faraday cage, protecting the device from EMPs. Cars, for example, would probably be fine if hit by an EMP, since they aren't grounded to earth.

As for robot vs robot warfare: As much as this idea is preferable, it's not realistic. If it isn't going to kill people, it's not much of a threat; therefore, these things will be designed to kill/threaten civilians and avoid other robots.