GineersNow Engineering Magazine Issue 005

BIG GUYS - HAWKING,
WOZNIAK, HASSABIS
AND MUSK ARE OPPOSING
AUTONOMOUS WEAPONS
30
JULY 2016
Future Cities & Robotics
Until now, it was just in the
science fiction movies, but
now, it is known that the
“killer robots” are possible.
Throughout the world, there
are around 40 countries
that are engaged in building
autonomous robots.
Probably, the day is not far
when the humanity has to be
on war against the machines
for their survival. There
are talks that the world is
nearing an autonomous
arms race. To stop this kind of
a destructive war, which can
have a devastating impact
on the entire humanity,
some great scientists of the
world have come together.
They have filed a petition to
the governments all around
the world to put ban on
autonomous weapons. There
are some high profile names
on the list of petitioners
including Prof. Stephen
Hawking, Tesla’s CEO Elon
Musk, Google DeepMind
CEO Demis Hassabis and
Apple co-founder Steve
Wozniak. They have joined
hands to put a ban on the
designing and development
of weapons that can
autonomously “select and
engage targets without
human interventions.”
The letter of declaration
states: “AI technology has
reached a point where the
deployment of [autonomous
weapons] is – practically
if not legally – feasible
within years, not decades,