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Daniel Suarez: The kill decision shouldn't belong to a robot

TED

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  • Recommended by 3 people: 3 on Hacker News.
  • A classic. People kept recommending it from 2013 to 2025.
  • Presented by Daniel Suarez, novelist
  • May be out of date. Uploaded 13 years ago, in an area where tools change fast.
  • An opinion. It argues one side of a question engineers disagree on.

Beginner. No background in the topic needed.

77K views13 years ago3 recommendations

AI and machine learningSecurityAI safety and impact

Daniel Suarez warns against the rise of autonomous robotic weapons and argues that the decision to kill must remain under human control.

As a novelist, Daniel Suarez spins dystopian tales of the future. But on the TEDGlobal stage, he talks us through a real-life scenario we all need to know more about: the rise of autonomous robotic weapons of war. Advanced drones, automated weapons and AI-powered intelligence-gathering tools, he suggests, could take the decision to make war out of the hands of humans. TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more. Find closed captions and translated subtitles in many languages at ted.com/translate Follow TED news on Twitter: twitter.com/tednews Like TED on Facebook: facebook.com/TED Subscribe to our channel: youtube.com/user/TEDtalksDirector

Why it's here

3 people recommend this

What people say. Recommended as a compelling warning about the dangers of automated drone warfare and algorithmic targeting.

jameslkon Hacker News • Recommends

On “AI adoption linked to 13% decline in jobs for young U.S. workers: study”

There's likely a slippery slope fallacy in there somewhere (I hope). If interested in the (not so) sci-fi aspects of automated weapons and their ramifications, I often plug Daniel Suarez's great Kill Decision talk and book: link to this video
View on Hacker News

salienton Hacker News • Recommends

On “I worked on the US drone program. The public should know what really goes on”

This is only going to get worse if they make drones autonomous, which this TED talk shows they have a lot of reasons for why they will want to make them autonomous, unless there's huge public outcry demanding a ban: link to this video
View on Hacker News

higherpurposeon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Musk warns of 'summoning the demon' with AI”

When you see governments already contemplating killing people based on algorithms, you begin to empathize with Musk about calling AI a "demon" that we're summoning: link However right now I'm much more afraid of governments "setting loose" autonomous killer robots than I am about Skynet-like self-conscious killer robots (which may be what Musk is thinking about). To the people being on the receiving end of the autonomous killer robots' missiles, it won't be much difference, though. They would already be living a "Terminator-like" future, where they have to "fight the machines". Relevant talk by Daniel Suarez: link to this video
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unonoon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Who Will Prosper in the New World”

…It's quaint that the good professor thinks we'll just go on seeking jobs after taking coursera courses, and marketing sales letters to each other, but we hackers unfortunately know that that isn't an accurate prediction. The gravitas of the situation is far greater. edit: Ted Talk by Daniel Suarez (author of Daemon and Freedom) on the drone threat link to this video…
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higherpurposeon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Google’s Ray Kurzweil predicts how the world will change”

…will use these technologies nefariously, probably long before we find out about them, in secret. And even if they get public, I fear most people will be too complacent to it, and won't revolt too much against it (US still keeps Guantanamo open, for how many years now? It's not a matter of technology, but the same point applies). 1 - link 2 - link to this video link…
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higherpurposeon Hacker News • Mentions

On “The NSA’s Secret Role in the U.S. Assassination Program”

Jacob Appelbaum has been saying this for a while already. They use NSA's data to do "signature strikes", i.e. strikes where they may assassinate someone only based on the "harmless metadata" they have on him. Talked to someone who may have talked to someone else from a "terrorist organization"? Well, you may now be on a drone target list. This is going to get exponentially worse as they move to automated drone assassinations, where they just create an "algorithm" that's supposed to decide who is going to die next. This is going to be their next logical conclusion, and to them it's "inevitable". Of course, it will be done in secret, too, probably for years before there are even leaks about it…
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