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I am in general unconcerned with AI risks. However, AI should be permanently banned from use in war. There is no good that can come from this.

kjkjadksj 3y ago
Its probably been used in war for decades now
- dontupvoteme 3y ago
  Intelligence agencies have certainly been using it, but I could imagine the military was a bit more cautious with it given how much more can go wrong and how much worse the PR would be.
getmeinrn 3y ago
You mean to pull a trigger, correct? There are plenty of other areas where AI can shine like (excuse the layperson terms, I don't know what these are officially called) threat identification, intelligence gathering, logistics, population control.
- eganist 3y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command_and_control#Derivative_terms https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command_and_control#Derivative... Useful list here for some of what you're looking for.
mpalmer 3y ago
Good luck, we tried it already with nukes!
Varqu 3y ago
Good luck enforcing that. With most high tech it's rather the other way around: the technology gets first used in the military and after some delay, the general public receives the tampered version to play with.
unsupp0rted 3y ago
Is it possible to successfully ban AI research by militaries? Isn’t that asking them to surrender instantly to any military who keeps the research going?
jillesvangurp 3y ago
How would you enforce that? And how would you fight an enemy that doesn't fight with their hands tied behind their backs and uses any means available to them to kill you? Including AI of course. IMHO, there's nothing humane about indiscriminately lobbing large amounts of explosives at each other just because you don't have the technology to aim properly and strike more surgically, which are two things you might be able to do with AI. The Ukraine conflict is a stark reminder of how dehumanizing old school war can be. Scorched earth, lots of lives being lost, entire cities that get leveled to the ground.
pokstad 3y ago
What do you think is going to happen with AI in war that is so deplorable? When I think of AI in warfare, I think about how to strategize against an enemy. Like how to deploy troops and resources in the most efficient way possible. Or how to relay communications between different parts of the military that don’t normally talk to each other.
- JKCalhoun 3y ago
  Perhaps hunter drones that wait for their specific target, anticipate their moves/escape-routes and ultimately, utterly destroy them. Or perhaps AI can accurately determine the number of civilian casualties that can be had while staying below the threshold of public outrage. Just spit balling here.
  - pokstad 3y ago
    I think the more horrific ideas of a ”hunter” isn’t really any more different than what a human soldier is capable of. What an automated solution can do better though is enforce rules of engagement and restrict war crimes. Computers do exactly what you tell them to, while humans always have discretion.
akudha 3y ago
I don’t understand HN sometimes. Why is your comment being downvoted? As other comments are pointing out, it is practically very hard to ban anything when nation governments are the ones doing the very thing that much of humanity would like to ban - AI in warfare, in this case. Does that mean we can’t talk about it or raise questions? After all, it is hard to prevent nations acquiring nuclear weapons too, but there is a tremendous amount of effort spent trying, isn’t it?

kjkjadksj 3y ago

Its probably been used in war for decades now

dontupvoteme 3y ago
Intelligence agencies have certainly been using it, but I could imagine the military was a bit more cautious with it given how much more can go wrong and how much worse the PR would be.

getmeinrn 3y ago

You mean to pull a trigger, correct? There are plenty of other areas where AI can shine like (excuse the layperson terms, I don't know what these are officially called) threat identification, intelligence gathering, logistics, population control.

eganist 3y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command_and_control#Derivative_terms https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command_and_control#Derivative... Useful list here for some of what you're looking for.

mpalmer 3y ago

Good luck, we tried it already with nukes!

Varqu 3y ago

Good luck enforcing that. With most high tech it's rather the other way around: the technology gets first used in the military and after some delay, the general public receives the tampered version to play with.

unsupp0rted 3y ago

Is it possible to successfully ban AI research by militaries? Isn’t that asking them to surrender instantly to any military who keeps the research going?

jillesvangurp 3y ago

How would you enforce that? And how would you fight an enemy that doesn't fight with their hands tied behind their backs and uses any means available to them to kill you? Including AI of course. IMHO, there's nothing humane about indiscriminately lobbing large amounts of explosives at each other just because you don't have the technology to aim properly and strike more surgically, which are two things you might be able to do with AI. The Ukraine conflict is a stark reminder of how dehumanizing old school war can be. Scorched earth, lots of lives being lost, entire cities that get leveled to the ground.

pokstad 3y ago

What do you think is going to happen with AI in war that is so deplorable? When I think of AI in warfare, I think about how to strategize against an enemy. Like how to deploy troops and resources in the most efficient way possible. Or how to relay communications between different parts of the military that don’t normally talk to each other.

JKCalhoun 3y ago
Perhaps hunter drones that wait for their specific target, anticipate their moves/escape-routes and ultimately, utterly destroy them. Or perhaps AI can accurately determine the number of civilian casualties that can be had while staying below the threshold of public outrage. Just spit balling here.
- pokstad 3y ago
  I think the more horrific ideas of a ”hunter” isn’t really any more different than what a human soldier is capable of. What an automated solution can do better though is enforce rules of engagement and restrict war crimes. Computers do exactly what you tell them to, while humans always have discretion.

akudha 3y ago

I don’t understand HN sometimes. Why is your comment being downvoted? As other comments are pointing out, it is practically very hard to ban anything when nation governments are the ones doing the very thing that much of humanity would like to ban - AI in warfare, in this case. Does that mean we can’t talk about it or raise questions? After all, it is hard to prevent nations acquiring nuclear weapons too, but there is a tremendous amount of effort spent trying, isn’t it?