Reject Autonomous Killer Robot Swarms

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Television talking heads recently fretted about which ten candidates for President would make the cut in the Fox News Republican debate, and the leadership of Congress made the national legislature’s top priority the defunding of Planned Parenthood for doing something it doesn’t do. Meanwhile, attention of people who actually make things happen was riveted on something completely different: Word spread that the Air Force was about to announce if Northrup-Grumman or a Boeing-Lockheed Martin partnership will get the contract to build 100 new long-range bombers at up to $550 million per plane. The final cost to taxpayers, including the cost of field testing, is expected to be about $1.1 billion a piece, not including cost overruns.
In the end, the Air Force put off a decision for a few more weeks, but the intense drama has been building for many months. Each of the bidders actually represent networks of hundreds of smaller subcontractors, strategically peppered across every region, every major metropolitan area and very nearly every Congressional district in America, so that no Representative or Senator dare oppose the program. Some Long Island electronics firms will be cut in.

Miller_weekly_081415BWe think of our representatives as “Republicans” or “Democrats,” but
this month they are really “Northrups” or “Boeings.”
This new Long Range Strike Bomber, expected to be named the B-3, has some interesting specifications. It will be stealthy. It will deliver both conventional and nuclear weapons. It will be designed so that it can be flown with or without a human pilot.
As that drama played out, an extraordinary public statement was issued, an open letter signed by more than 1,000 distinguished scientists, including some of the world’s greatest experts in robotics, artificial intelligence and technology application. Stephen Hawking signed it. Elon Musk of SpaceX and Tesla Motors signed it. Steve Wozniak, the cofounder of Apple signed it. Billionaires and academics, cynics and idealists signed it. It deserves our attention.

They asked for a global ban on “autonomous weapons,” robots that operate without human control and even beyond human control. Autonomous weapons will be feasible “within years, not decades.” They have been described as “the third revolution” in human warfare; the first two were gunpowder and nuclear arms.

Although on paper these weapons would make battlefields safer for humans, in reality they will greatly increase casualties by lowering the threshold for engaging in battle. The signers warn emphatically that this will inevitably touch off a massive new arms race, and that whether we allow this to happen or stop it before it starts is “the key question for humanity today.”

These are people who know how the military research and procurement system works, and everyone understands that this arms race is likely already on. Unless this becomes a public issue, unless the public weighs in, this is inevitable. These weapons will be too deadly, too perfect for assassinations, for destabilizing governments, for subduing targeted ethnic groups or other populations. Irresistible. And far cheaper, pound for pound, than boondoggles like the $1.4 trillion F-35 fighter, which may never fly or fire its guns correctly.
This isn’t science fiction. The U.S. Army Research Laboratory issued a conference report in June (“Visualizing the Tactical Ground Battlefield in the Year 2050”) that describes, over and over, how “swarms” and “teams” of “self organized” collections of robots will dominate battle zones as independent attack forces and defensive shields, analyzing and reacting to situations at super-human speeds.

We already target drones based solely on patterns of behavior and local activity, without knowing exactly who we’re killing. We call it a “signature strike.”
The American people, taught to fight among themselves for crumbs as their bridges, highways, dams and power systems erode, deserve a say in setting priorities for our collective treasure. We must demand it.

Michael Miller (mmillercolumn@gmail.com) has worked in state and local government. He lives in New Hyde Park.

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