The Forum of World Economic has conveyed in Davos, a resort in the Swiss Alps, last week and it came to the conclusion that killer robots are a real threat for humankind. The world leading authorities in economics, technology and science, and also famous billionaires have gathered in the Swiss Alps to discuss the future of technology and science and the perspectives turned out to be rather grim.
- The forum was concerned that fully autonomous robots could represent a danger due to the lack of the human factor
- Robots can’t feel empathy or compassion and that could make them very dangerous
- Domestic robots could take over 5 million jobs in the near future
It seems that killer robots are a real threat, not the plot of an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, or an Isaac Asimov book. The technology has progressed so much in the late years that we already have drones flying around the world with the pilot sitting comfortably in an office, somewhere. We have intelligent thermostats and even a toaster that connects to the Wi-Fi and can be activated via an App. The next logical step is fully autonomous robots.
This was the focus of the conversation during last weekend’s forum in Davos, Switzerland. The representatives talked about the possibility of these near-future intelligent machines rebelling against their human creators and starting a war. The chances of humanity surviving such a conflagration are rather slim.
It is true that the current political situation of the World puts thousands of military lives at risk at every moment due to outgoing wars, but the idea of replacing a man capable of empathy and reason with a robot that is programmed to kill and destroy everything that looks like an enemy is worst. The scientists, and not only them, are worried that once the human factor disappears from the equation things could take a turn for the worst.
For the moment the idea of a robot doing simple chores around the house, or helping an overwhelmed teacher grade some tests is actually quite nice. But as these robots appear on the market, the general public will want upgrades and improvements, and that will eventually lead to a larger robot population with complex human jobs. Robots that will be able to make decisions. Artificial intelligence that if fully autonomous.
The problem with this is not only that humans will lose their jobs to robots, but that their number would grow alarmingly and a war could be triggered by something as simple as a faulty update in their software, or a poorly written program line.
Unfortunately, it is not a scene from a Will Smith Sci-Fi movie, killer robots are a real threat in 2015.
andrewp3 says
Killer Robots Are a Real Threat
Well, um, DUUUUUUH!
“Robots can’t feel empathy or compassion and that could make them very dangerous”
Nothing like grunts who kill on command and who are infinitely more adaptive, then.
The collective IQ of a committee is not the sum of the individual IQs.
Edward Robinson says
Most likely, domestic robots (if they ever come about, which I doubt due to a worsening economy) will be connected to the Internet. This means they’ll be hackable. And that will make them dangerous. Maybe not in the traditional movie robot sense of firing lasers around living rooms, but in other less dramatic but problematic ways.
Homer says
Robot Police, relentless, bullet proof, networked, dealing with crime in the inner city… Hey, Jesse Jackson, when do we march?
gpyle says
Ha. What a hoot. I feel so threatened…not. Who writes this crap?
mobius1948 says
What are they smoking in Davos?
JackBall says
I think Jesse would be pleased (he’d lead a parade – not a protest). It is the conscious & unconscious biases of human policing that is problematic. Robots won’t pull you over for no reason; pull the trigger when facing a 12 year old with a plastic gun… many LEO’s need a dose of humanity, for sure, but that same humanity has baggage we just can’t seem to root out (maybe code it out?)
Peter Antonocci says
“robots can’t feel empathy or compassion and that could make them very dangerous” do you think anyone in the process of killing someone else is feeling any empathy or compassion?
joloh says
To your point the threat is actually less robots, but AI. Robot tech is merely motility. But the threat of AI is real. It will catch most sharing your view quite by surprise. The tech is moving much faster and more certainly than most realize. Most experts in tech understand this.
Mike Layton says
“Robots can’t feel empathy or compassion and that could make them very dangerous”
Who knew it? Robots are Republicans!
andrewp3 says
The Dunces of Davos
gpyle says
Thanks. Appreciate your insight. Clearly I’m not an expert in tech.
irevolt says
The billionaires meeting in Davos won’t want anyone but themselves having killer robots, that’s what they’re scared of. I’m sure they wonder what would happen if their human security teams discovered empathy or compassion for the 99% to interfere with there jobs of protection. Killer robots won’t have a guilty conscious of what they do, or will they develop PTSD after using deadly force.
Duck_of_Death says
You mean Republicans are robots.
John Kolb says
Finally the gov’t makes something that works exactly as designed, do we celebrate the most stunning achievement since the A bomb? No, we cower in terror at what could go wrong. Come on peeps, we haven’t blown ourselves up, yet. Everything will be fine.
gordo53 says
Is empathy and compassion what drone operators feel when they drop a 500lb bomb on a house and kill innocent women and children?
Albert Leo says
“Artificial intelligence that if fully autonomous.” ???
another some guy says
Nor can they feel smug, ignorant superiority.
Who knew it? Robots aren’t leftists!
another some guy says
Ask their commander, Barack Obama.
Mike Fuller says
Whaddya mean, “…the government makes…”?
Mike Fuller says
unplug yours so it won’t hurt you.
Mike Layton says
Well I think we could agree, hard to tell the difference some times. I think though that real robots often exhibit more complex programming.
Atom Quarkfull says
The “intelligence” is still quite human… the danger is another layer of disconnect and “plausible” deniability in the chain of command.
Mike Layton says
Well they don’t appear to be racist as most Republicans are so maybe they are RINOs.
Of course liberals feel superior to bigoted racist the refuse to accept reality and science. Why shouldn’t they . They are. Liberals tend to be realists rather than live in fantasy worlds.
Duck_of_Death says
Agreed.
However, i would say that Hillary appears to be a robot herself.
Ebola1900 says
Irrespective of the pronouncements issued by one, or many “expert” panels, does anyone really think that nations or groups focused on destroying their rivals, will abandon weaponized AI because it may pose an unreasonable risk of unintended consequences? While extremist groups especially those with Dark Age mind sets, are unlikely to develop technologies on their own, ISIS’s mastery of social media and the Internet shows just how easy it is to convert benign technology into WMD. Be assured once AI reaches the point that your robot vacuum learns how to avoid being trapped under the same chair every day, someone will convert them into weapons. In fact, as we race towards autonomous cars, just think how large a payload the most rudimentary self driving vehicle will be able to deliver.
another some guy says
Of course you are superior to the straw men you invent. What that has to do with reality escapes me.
Mike Layton says
HRC has exhibited compassion and empathy so if she is a robot then she has very complex programming. Mow that would still make her a better President than the robots on the GOP side that have such simple programming that they are more simple than the autonomia that Disney uses.
Sometime we simply have to chose the lesser of two evils. Sanders has little chance of winning si,ply because he embarrasses being a socialist and most people don’t understand the term.
Republicans will never select any of the decent Rs that they have. As the years have gone by they keep picking the more extreme ones.
Not saying Nixon was a great one, but he was the last one that was even a decent President (IMO) – a lousy human but a decent President for the times. His approval rating was about 50% over his term. Only a little less than Reagan’s average and that was even with Watergate and Reagan not having an unpopular war going on.
kristopher holm says
LMAO… did you just say liberals tend to be realist? Must be all that now legal mary jane your smoking because in my experience libs seem to be idealist (any liberal idea could work if proceeded by the phrase ‘in a perfect world’).
kristopher holm says
Defiantly not in humans case… the “collective IQ” seems to be as high as the lowest IQ in the collective.
kristopher holm says
I hope drone operators don’t feel empathy when they fire… I would hate for them to hesitate on the next mission.
kristopher holm says
It would depend on the situation and or psychosis.
kristopher holm says
think you may be wrong there. Any AI worth a crap would LEARN that the pimp-mobile with the black tented windows seem to have criminals in them more often… then it would learn that black people commit more crimes percentage wise and then it would be the same but with no excuses.
John Kolb says
Right, shoulda said “the gov’t overpaid for…” my bad.
Duck_of_Death says
Lesser of two evils, yes.
But she’s still a robot.
Mike Layton says
Now which group/person said –
Racism no longer exists in the US so we do not need Voter laws – Liberals or conservatives?
The World was created in 7 days. L or C ?
The US is a Christian Nation and all other religions should be outlawed. L or C?
Allowing gay marriage will destroy heterosexual marriage. L or C ?
Trickle down economics works and will help the poor and middle class. L or C?
Poor people receive all the healthcare they need at the emergency room. L or C
Obama was not born in the US and is a Muslim. L or C?
Women report rapes because they have sex and then don’t want to admit they did – legitimate rapes remember. L or C?
Women don’t need birth control pills – they should just hold an aspirin between their knees. L or C?
Corporations are people. L or C?
i don’t need to worry about 475 of the people because they are all takers. L or C?
Donald Trump understands the common man because he is one of us. L or C?
I can shoot someone on 5th AV and not lose a single supporter. L or C?
Only a good guy with a gun can stop a bad guy with a gun. L or C?
More guns would make Americas safer. L or C
Who said that soldiers that got captured were losers. L or C
Who said if a healthy person foregoes health insurance and becomes critically ill – Let him die. L or C?
Answer truthfully.
Liberals may say in a perfect world but they realize that the world is not perfect. But we desire to make the world better. One of compassion and empathy.
Republicans simply want to make the world into some distorted place where they control all the minorities and women (not a minority). A world based on hate, fear. and a total lack of compassion.
Mike Layton says
Elections at all levels has basically been a chose of choosing the lesser of two evils. The best people would never chose to run. A desire for power seems yo be inherit in the way our system is ran. I wish it was different, but it isn’t.
As long as we have people that desire to have power over other people then it will continue. Perhaps someday it will be different. I hope someday it will change. I don’t hold out much hope but still have a little hope.
another some guy says
1. Almost no one says that.
2. Only fundamentalist Christians say that, a tiny minority and not all of them are Republicans
3. Even closer to almost no one says that.
4. Almost no one says that.
5. That is a famous leftist straw man, an invented term by the left to caricature a Republican economic plan that does not operate in that fashion at all.
6. Almost no one says that.
7. A minority of conservatives say that.
8. Some women do, no one says all women do,
9. I have never even heard of that. Ridiculous any one who says it, and you for trying to smear us with it.
10. Corporations are made of people and must be able to secure rights in a free society. A gross mischaracterization, as is your wont.
11. ?
12. Finally you have a good one. That is truly stupid, but it is still a minority opinion of the Right.
13. ?
14. Tell us please, superior person (as you yourself say) what does stop a bag guy with a gun? Your good and happy thoughts? Flowers? Please tell us, sincerely. More laws I guess you’ll say. There are already many laws a bad guy is breaking. Heroin is illegal, you may have noticed that bad guys create black markets.
15. We have more guns and we are safer. I’m sorry that you seem to be so scared of these inanimate objects and have almost no understanding of the people who own them
16. A life long Democrat until a short time ago. Probably still is but is just running a con right now.
17. Almost no one says that.
You are extremely delusional.
figfoggin says
“It is true that the current political situation of the World puts thousands of military lives at risk at every moment due to outgoing wars, but the idea of replacing a man capable of empathy and reason with a robot that is programmed to kill and destroy everything that looks like an enemy is worst.”
You mean WORSE.
“The scientists, and not only them, are worried that once the human factor disappears from the equation things could take a turn for the worst.”
lol So that wasn’t a typo. You really are a ℉µcking idiot.
isolate says
“Robots can’t feel empathy or compassion and that could make them very dangerous.”
That should read, “Robots can’t YET feel empathy, etc”
Predicting the future qualities of a very new technology is like predicting the qualities of a modern airplane using the Wright brothers’ Flyer as a baseline.
azumaguy says
couldn’t pass up an opportunity, rightasshole?
azumaguy says
So, couldn’t pass up an opportunity, rightasshole?
azumaguy says
Again, couldn’t pass up an opportunity, rightasshole?
Mike Layton says
I am not a rightasshole. I am a leftasshole,, thankyou. And assholes are important. Without them one would remain filed with shit and remain much like you. It would be a bad world with out assholes. It would be with people full of shit like you.
Mike Layton says
Of course not. Humans are political and all our inventions are political also. Only by recognizing that fact can the good an bad points of the development of the inventions be addressed. Failure to acknowledge the political aspects and who controls that thinking only avoids the issues.
David Szabo says
Yes robotic war,s are here but kill switches and magnetic burst,s are here also, nano-robots are probably the thing to worry about for the combination robot and nano replicating of them and viruses to enable or disable foe or friendly’s will be a self replicating war machine that under certain condition,s biological or neutron bombardment of the human race.
Username__already__exists says
Troll. Off topic and designed to elicit a debate about some inane and unconnected item.