When May a Robot Kill? New DOD Policy Tries to Clarify

https://www.nextgov.com/ ^ | JANUARY 26, 2023 | By Patrick Tucker,

[RomanSoldier19]

Did you think the Pentagon had a hard rule against using lethal autonomous weapons? It doesn’t. But it does have hoops to jump through before such a weapon might be deployed—and, as of Wednesday, a revised policy intended to clear up confusion.

The biggest change in the Defense Department’s new version of its 2012 doctrine on lethal autonomous weapons is a clearer statement that it is possible to build and deploy them safely and ethically but not without a lot of oversight.

That’s meant to clear up the popular perception that there’s some kind of a ban on such weapons. “No such requirement appears in [the 2012 policy] DODD 3000.09, nor any other DOD policy,” wrote Greg Allen, the director of the Artificial Intelligence Governance Project and a senior fellow in the Strategic Technologies Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

[RomanSoldier19]

[SaveFerris]

After it becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m.?

[higgmeister]

Isaac Asimov's "Three Laws of Robotics"

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

2. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

---

[higgmeister]

Asimov later added the “Zeroth Law,” above all the others – “A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.”

[Yo-Yo]

You forgot the Zeroth Law:

Zeroth Law
A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.

[cgbg]

If a bunch of robots go rogue and start killing civilians they will be sent written reprimands in triplicate!

[cgbg]

Now we have the “woketh law”.

5. White people are not considered “human” for the purposes of the other laws.

[SaveFerris]

What could possibly go wrong with armed robots?

[Magnum44]

[EnderWiggin1970]

What could go wrong?

[higgmeister]

Gotit.

[Tench_Coxe]

"The biggest change in the Defense Department’s new version of its 2012 doctrine on lethal autonomous weapons is a clearer statement that it is possible to build and deploy them safely and ethically but not without a lot of oversight."

Consider Lindsey Graham's alleged exhortation to Capitol Police "you have guns, use them" on January 6th, it doesn't afford much confidence about the oversight part.

[Yo-Yo]

Yup, one minute before I posted. LOL!

[Navy Patriot]

When May a Robot Kill? New DOD Policy...

Anytime it wants to.

[9YearLurker]

Don’t forget that Asimov was a Navy intel guy whose last book, in the early ‘70s, was about environmentalism and the destructive power of overpopulation.

[BenLurkin]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-2tpwW0kmU

[Tell It Right]

Maybe we can talk the robots to death with paradoxes. LOL

Nomad:

M5:

Lamu:

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Patriot, as deployed in the Gulf War I, had certain modes where it would automatically engage, one of which was when it felt threatened by an anti-radiation (anti-radar) missile. Two marine pilots were flying together without IFF (Identification friend or foe) active. One had a malfunction and separated to land on an airfield defended by a Patriot battery. When he separated from his wingman, he looked to the Patriot radar like a separating missile. When he flew an approach directly at the radar he looked like an anti radiation missile. His wingman decided to follow him. It looked like a salvo of two anti radiation missiles. Patriot did what it was programmed to do. Thereafter, the air boss was the E-3 AWACS, and Patriot could only engage a target if authorized by the air boss.

[ro_dreaming]

You forgot Haricourt Fenton Mudd and V’Ger

[PapaBear3625]

“A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.”

Both the later books, and the Will Smith movie explored the logical conclusion of that law: to protect humans against themselves, robots would have to take control