Philosophy, Artificial Intelligence, and Robotics:

The ethical challengesJohn P. Sullins

Ph.D. 2002, Ph.D in Philosophy, Computers and Cognitive Science, Binghamton University

Sonoma State University Philosophy Department. 2003-

AI and Robots at War

SLAUGHTERBOT—A COLLABORATION BETWEEN UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-BERKELEY PROFESSOR STUART RUSSELL AND THE FUTURE OF LIFE INSTITUTE, 2017

HUMANS HAVE WANTED THIS FOR A LONG TIME

• Talon (Talos) silver drachma Crete cir 300-270 BCE

• Leonardo’s Mechanical Knight 1495

• From the San Antonio Light, July 28, 1935

BOMBING BALLOONS

• Bombing by Balloon, 1848• Source : Prof. Jurij Drushnin, Moscow,

RussiaLeonardo’s From the San Antonio Light, July 28, 1935

• August 22, 1849, Austria bombs Venice by unmanned ballons

• “Five balloons, each twenty-three feet in diameter, are in construction at Treviso. In a favorable wind the balloons will be launched and directed as near to Venice as possible, and on their being brought to vertical positions over the town, they will be fired by electro magnetism by means of a long isolated copper wire with a large galvanic battery placed on the shore. The bomb falls perpendicularly, and explodes on reaching the ground."

RADIO ALLOWED FOR REMOTE CONTROL OF WEAPONS IN WWI

• Nikolai Tesla-1898 radio controlled boat.

• Sopwith AT "Aerial Torpedo" (1917) anti zeppelin weapon

• Wickersham Land Torpedo (1917)

• None of these weapons left the testing phase

THE ROBOT BATTLESHIP (1930)

FURTHER INNOVATION OF REMOTE CONTROLED WEAPONS IN WWII

• The Lockheed D-21 is an American supersonic reconnaissance drone. The D-21 was initially designed to be launched from the back of an M-21 carrier aircraft, a variant of the Lockheed A-12 aircraft. The drone had maximum speed in excess of Mach 3.3 at an operational altitude of 90,000 feet. Wikipedia

• Ryan Model 147 Lightning Bug series, were used by the US to spy on North Vietnam, Communist China, and North Korea in the 1960s and early 1970s.

WELCOME TO THE DRONE WARS—POWERED BY AI AND WIRELESS TECHNOLOGIES

ARGUABLY ALL THIS HAS HAD SOMEONE IN CONTROL

US Army Corps of Engineers Engineer Research & Development Center Navigation Channel Design Using Real-Time Marine Simulation Don Wilson Chief – Navigation.Griffin Silvester Bruce Cir. 2014

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AT WAR--FICTION

• Common theme in science fiction media

• AI as a foe or helper

• Often grows beyond human control

Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) relies on the JARVIS artificial intelligence to help pilot his Iron Man suit -a model the military is looking at for future troops (Marvel Comics/Paramount Pictures)

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AT WAR —REALITY

• Modern militaries are rushing to add AI capabilities to their forces

• US Army—Big Six Modernization program (October 2017)

• All Governments have similar programs

N.S.A. OFFICIAL: WE NEED TO PREPARE FOR THE FUTURE OF WAR

• Glenn S. Gerstell, general counsel of the National Security Agency. NYT opinion 9/10/19

• 4 key implications1. “…unprecedented scale and pace of

technological change will outstrip our ability to effectively adapt to it”

2. “…we will be in a world of ceaseless and pervasive cyberinsecurity and cyberconflict against nation-states, businesses and individuals.

3. “the flood of data about human and machine activity …will transform the fundamental relationship, at least in the Western world, between government and the private sector.”

4. “…perhaps most ominously, the digital revolution has the potential for a pernicious effect on the very legitimacy and thus stability of our governmental and societal structures.

N.S.A. OFFICIAL: WE NEED TO PREPARE FOR THE FUTURE OF WAR

• “One key aspect of any such new approach will be a heavy reliance on machine learning and artificial intelligence. We thought wrestling with the challenges of the Fourth Amendment in addressing electronic surveillance over the past few decades was complicated and contentious, but setting norms for A.I. will surely be even more fraught with difficulty.

N.S.A. OFFICIAL: WE NEED TO PREPARE FOR THE FUTURE OF WAR

The stakes are much higher, given that A.I. will be intrinsic to determinations and decisions of almost every aspect of our personal, professional and commercial lives. A.I. opens up the possibility of rendering intelligible for national security purposes that ocean of data. But if misused or even if not thoroughly understood, A.I. can yield nefarious and corrupting results for our society.”

N.S.A. OFFICIAL: WE NEED TO PREPARE FOR THE FUTURE OF WAR

“Since A.I. is still relatively nascent, our surveillance and analytic resources are not well positioned to deeply understand how adversaries might be using it in the future.”

• an adversary can feed misinformation to A.I. systems to corrupt or defeat them (such as causing a driverless car to ignore a stop sign).

• We will also need to understand the protocols by which future autonomous weapons —drones, tanks, armed robots — will be controlled so that we can defend ourselves.

• Will the availability of huge numbers of nonhuman war-fighting machines increase the chances of war, as policymakers might be more willing to sacrifice those machines than humans?

N.S.A. OFFICIAL: WE NEED TO PREPARE FOR THE FUTURE OF WAR

• “Low level “…not-yet-conceived lower threshold of machine-to-machine conflict”

• Quantum Computing

• it is not clear that the intelligence community will be able to attract and retain the necessary talent needed to make sense of how our adversaries will make use of the new technology.

• Consider how North Korea seems able to operate with relative impunity in cyberspace, knowing that it is unlikely to provoke an armed attack partly because of its perceived willingness to retaliate in ways that would impose unacceptable consequences on Western society.

N.S.A. OFFICIAL: WE NEED TO PREPARE FOR THE FUTURE OF WAR

“Bluntly put, there are few signs that our society overall and our political leaders have fully embraced the challenge or appreciate the risks of failure.”

QUICK SIDE TRACK—WHAT IS A QUANTUM COMPUTER?

CRASHOVERRIDE—A LOOK AT THE FUTURE OF WAR?

• 2016 blackout in Ukraine cause by a Russian Cyberattack.

• Lasted only 1hr, but research suggest that it was intended to shut down power for days or weeks

• Similar to attacks in Estonia (2007) and Georgia (2008)

CRASHOVERRIDE—A LOOK AT THE FUTURE OF WAR?

CRASHOVERRIDE—A LOOK AT THE FUTURE OF WAR?

US ARMY AI TASK FORCE

• National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC) in Lawrenceville

• Several small teams of military personnel that will develop prototypes and do long-term research under the direction of the Army Futures Command.

• “Artificial intelligence is going to be incorporated in everything we do,”

• “It is not a question of if these technologies will change the character of war, it is only a question of when.”

U.S. Army launches AI Task Force at CMU, stirring concerns about lethal machinesBill O'Toole, What is next for Pittsburg, February 4, 2019

US ARMY AI TASK FORCE

• Drones and Robots to carry wounded soldiers from battle• the Army AI Task Force says that fully automated

medical evacuation aircraft could be deployed in as little as five years.

• Software to spot hidden enemy forces• AI aide to help generals understand confusing battlefield

situations• Algorithms to help generals find the right person for

various military duties from all enlisted people.• AI to dig deeper and find information that could be

missed on a resume or even in face-to-face conversations.

U.S. Army banks on artificial intelligence to beat China and RussiaBen Wolfgang

US ARMY AI TASK FORCE

• “I think it’s a national imperative,” Col. Doug Matty, deputy director of the Army’s AI Task Force

• Russia and especially China have opened a significant lead in many fields of research.

• Pentagon, the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC)

U.S. Army banks on artificial intelligence to beat China and RussiaBen Wolfgang

US ARMY AI TASK FORCE

An Overview of National AI Stratagies June 2018

ETHICAL CONCERNS OF AUTONOMOUS WEAPONS

• Responsibility and Rights

• Virtues

• Moral Harm

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AT WAR —REALITY

• Responsibilities and Rights

HEATHER ROFF’S ARGUMENT

• Lethal Autonomous Robots are not a new weapons system• They are a new kind of combatant!

• A combatant without

• Ethical decision-making capabilities

• No moral equivalence to human combatants

• Confusion in

• Responsibility

• Not autonomous in the original sense of the term

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AT WAR —REALITY

• Virtue

AUTONOMOUS ROBOTICS SYSTEMS AND HUMAN VIRTUES

• How doe these technologies impact the development of military virtue and skills

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AT WAR —REALITY

• Moral Harm Caused by Autonomous Weapons Systems

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AT WAR —REALITY

• Can we design ethical AI systems for warfare?

ETHICAL SYSTEMS AUTONOMY

• Systems must have meaningful human control with a clear chain of command

• Systems must be safe and transparent

• Learning algorithms must lead to predictable and explainable behavior

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AT WAR —REALITY

• The Historic Stop Killer Robots Movement

RISE OF THE TECH WORKERS

• A group of more than 4,000 anonymous Google employees has fittingly been named 2018 “Arms Control Person of the Year” for their role in helping the company to end a military contract that raised ethical and other concerns over the appropriate use of artificial intelligence and machine learning.

RISE OF THE TECH WORKERS

• The 2018 Ipsos survey used respondent pools of 500 –1,000 people in each country. The strongest opposition was in Turkey (78%), South Korea (74%), and Hungary (74%).

Opposition was strong for both women (62%) and men (60%) although men are more likely to favour these weapons (26%) compared to women (18%). Opposition also increased with age: those most opposed were ages 50 to 64 (68%).

HAROP ISRAELI AUTONOMOUS DRONE

LONG RANGE ANTI-SHIP MISSILE (LRASM)

CAN WE BAN KILLER ROBOTS?

PREVIEW

• Asleep, with an AI at the wheel