Page 18 - IAV Digital Magazine #431

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US General Warns of Out-of-control Killer Robots
By Ryan Browne, CNN
(CNN)America's second-highest ranking military officer, Gen. Paul Selva, advocated Tuesday for "keeping the ethi- cal rules of war in place lest we unleash on humanity a set of robots that we don't know how to control."
Selva was responding to a question from Sen. Gary Peters, a Michigan Democrat, about his views on a Department of Defense directive that requires a human operator to be kept in the decision-making process when it comes to the tak- ing of human life by autonomous weapons sys- tems.
Peters said the restriction was "due to expire later this year."
"I don't think it's reasonable for us to put robots in
charge of whether or not we take a human life," Selva told the Senate Armed Services Committee dur- ing a confirma- tion hearing for his reappoint- ment as the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, during which a wide range of topics were covered, including North Korea, Iran and defense budget issues.
He predicted that "there will be a raucous debate in the department about whether or not we take
humans out of the decision to take lethal action," but added that he was "an advocate for keeping that restriction."
Selva said humans needed to remain in the decision making process
"because we take our values to war." He pointed to the laws of war and the need to consider issues like proportional and discriminate action against an enemy, some- thing he suggest- ed could only be done by a human.
His comments come as the US military has sought increas- ingly autonomous weapons sys- tems.
In July 2016, a group of con- cerned scientists, researchers and academics, including theoret- ical physicist Stephen Hawking and billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, argued against the development of autonomous weapons sys- tems. They warned of an arti- ficial intelligence arms race and
called for a "ban on offensive autonomous weapons beyond meaningful human control."
But Peters warned that America's adver- saries may be less hesitant to adopt such lethal technology.
"Our adversaries often do not to consider the same moral and ethical issues that we consider each and every day," the senator told Selva.
Selva acknowl- edged the possi- bility of US adversaries developing such technology, but said the decision not to pursue it for the US mili- tary "doesn't mean that we don't have to address the development of those kinds of technologies and potentially find their vulnerabili- ties and exploit those vulnerabili- ties."
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