Science fiction has given us a lot to look forward to, but now some say that very fiction might be informing the way humans wage war and we’re probably not going to like it. For years tech experts have warned about the use of robots and drones to wage war, with movies like the terminator being uncloaked cautionary tales. But in the real world we’ve already started to see this becoming a real issue.
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Science fiction has given us a lot to look forward to, but now some say that very fiction
00:08might be informing the way humans wage war, and we're probably not going to like it.
00:13For years, tech experts have warned about the use of robots and drones in warfare, with
00:17movies like The Terminator being uncloaked cautionary tales.
00:20But in the real world, we've already started to see this becoming a real issue.
00:25Police forces have already begun to use Boston Dynamics' Spot robot to begin to aid them
00:29in their jobs, something the American Civil Liberties Union says is worrying, as they
00:33warn it's simply too easy to change a policy and begin to arm those very robots.
00:38In fact, San Francisco already passed a law allowing robots to use deadly force.
00:42That policy has since been redacted after public outcry, and while the U.S. has used
00:46deadly UAV drones for years for surgical strikes around the world, recently Russia began using
00:51small, explosive-laden drones to strike civilian populations in Ukraine.
00:55Still, these robots are controlled at least in part by humans, but just like in movies
00:59like The Matrix, AI could become the very real existential threat for humanity.
01:04Recently more than a thousand industry leaders wrote an open letter to whomever is developing
01:07these tools, hoping to slow their development until proper safety protocols are in place,
01:12with many experts saying it's completely possible that somewhere in the world, an algorithm
01:16has already become self-aware, and we just haven't realized it yet.