In the annual International Joint Conference on AI on July 18, AI innovators agreed to a pledge against weaponizing technologies introduced by the Future of Life Institute.
According to National Public Radio’s article, a recent demonstration in France of an autonomous tank frightened scientists in the field of AI. Autonomous weapons may not draw the same fear as a killer robot (e.g., “the Terminator”) but weapons that function without human surveillance can be a threat. During the International Joint Conference on AI, top scientific minds came together to call for a “law against lethal autonomous weapons”.
The pledge stated that “we will neither participate in nor support the development, manufacture, trade or use of lethal autonomous weapons”. The pledge was signed by Elon Musk, Founder of Tesla and Space X. Demis Hassabis and Mustafa Suleyman, Google DeepMind’s co-founders, and people among 170 organization and 2,400 individuals.
The pledge plays a role of an encouragement to global governments to take legal action to ban further development of this kind of technology.
At the same time, MDI is also working on an AI Peace Treaty including challenges for AI peace, AI weapons, the role of the UNs, OECD countries and top AI corporations in maintaining peaceful uses of AI.
