Why human rights activists against combat robots

Smart cars succeeded everywhere - in art , solving environmental problems and healthcare . What will happen if you entrust them with the most expensive - human life? The consequences of this decision were discussed by the participants of the press conference “Game without Rules: killer robots or artificial intelligence in military technologies”, which took place at the Rosbalt information and analytical agency on June 10, 2019. Julia Kalenkov’s journalist Julia Kalenkova recorded the main thoughts from a meeting organized by the Moscow Helsinki group .

“If the robot shot a person, who will answer? The developer, the “piece of iron” itself - that is, the algorithm embedded in it, the person who adopted this robot? There are no answers to these questions in international law. And it is not clear even to what extent the responsibility will be held, ” Alena Popova , lawyer, head of the analytical center“ Ethics and Technology ”(the Center was created with the support of the Scientific Council on the methodology of artificial intelligence of the Russian Federation of the Russian Federation) designated one of the main problems.

Algorithms have a trouble -free action, but there is no internal grounds and motives, own values. They cannot be humane about people - respect human life and human dignity. It is impossible to formalize in the code, which, of course, makes work with “smart machines” even more difficult.

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Another problem that the expert formulated is the Black Box . The work of deep learning algorithms is so complicated that a person cannot understand, on the basis of which the algorithm has made this or that decision. Accordingly, the responsibility will be transferred from a person to algorithms. War crimes will turn into "costs of war." Other questions remain without answers: what to do with criminal or immoral orders that a person can refuse to fulfill, but there is no robot? How likely are the anonymous attacks and abuse of technology?

The discussion was continued by Alimzhan Akhmetov , director of the Center for International Security and Politics (Kazakhstan), which supports the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots campaign. He noted that the discussion of the permissible boundaries of the use of robotics has been carried out since 2010. And in 2018, three positions in relation to the situation were formulated:

• a preventive moratorium on autonomous systems (Australia, Brazil, Chile);
• the adoption of a political declaration on the preservation of significant human control (Germany, France and others);
• The ban on use (USA, Israel, Russia, South Korea and other states that actively invest in the use of artificial intelligence for military needs).

The position of Russia has repeatedly designated President Vladimir Putin: “If someone can provide a monopoly in the field of artificial intelligence, then we understand the consequences of all-he will become the Lord of the World,” the head of state summed up in May 2019 at a meeting on the development of technology in the field of artificial intelligence.

In 2018, the total expenses for research and development work (R&D) in the United States are estimated at $ 553 billion, in China-at $ 475 billion, in the EU-$ 449.5 billion. For Russia, the amount of $ 58.6 billion in 2018 is cited as an estimate. Thus, in the field of financing research, the country is an order of magnitude lags behind leaders. According to Forbes.ru .

Vadim Kozyulin , director of the project for new technologies and international security, and a feast center , opposed the speakers. He noted: many experts are sure that robots will be more accurate in compliance with humanitarian law . And before moving on to active actions - prohibitions or authorization - you need to solve a number of issues. For example, what is autonomous weapon in itself (is it possible, for example, a gas supply of defense can be considered such?); What does “significant human control” mean (after all, the algorithm laid down by man is also a form of control).

The result of the meeting was summed up by Andrei Yurov , human rights activist, expert of the Moscow Helsinki group, a member of the board of the international civil initiative for the OSCE. He urged to think about what is happening with the basic rights of a person in the digital era: the right to life, to the inviolability of private life.

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“Even the most intelligent mechanisms are developed by imperfect creatures - people. So, there is always the possibility of mistakes, is it worth it to trust the machines in this case? ” -The expert concluded and emphasized: to wait for the developers to agree on the ban on autonomous weapons. Only world civil society can withstand this threat, and for this it will have to grow up very quickly and unite.