Risking falling behind in an arms race with Russia and China "already building killer robots," the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence said the U.S. has a "moral imperative" to build terminators.
The robots will save American soldiers' lives, reducing "friendly fire" casualties and artificial intelligence-guided weapons will make fewer mistakes in battle, according to AI commission Vice President Robert Work, the U.K.'s Daily Star reported.
It is a moral imperative to at least pursue this hypothesis," Work said during a two-day discussion this week, per the report.
The panel warns both rival countries and terrorists will soon be using AI-based weapons.
"The AI promise — that a machine can perceive, decide, and act more quickly, in a more complex environment, with more accuracy than a human — represents a competitive advantage in any field," according to the panel, adding, "it will be employed for military ends, by governments and non-state groups."
Joint Artificial Intelligence Center Director Lt. Gen. John Shanahan said Russia has shown a "greater willingness to disregard international ethical norms and to develop systems that pose destabilizing risks to international security," per the Daily Star.
Humans will remain at the control of the AI weapons, the panel stressed.
"When you are defending against a drone swarm, a human may be required to make that first decision, but I am just not sure any human can keep up," U.S. Army Futures Commander Gen. John Murray said, per the report.
The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots has garnered support of about 30 governments worldwide to ban AI weapons and robots, warning about the risks of machines deciding "who lives and dies, without further human intervention" would "cross a moral threshold," the Daily Star reported.
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Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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