Amazon, Microsoft, may be putting world at risk of killer AI, says report

Washington, Amazon, Microsoft, and Intel are among the leading technology companies in the world's AI arms race, according to a report that surveyed key players in the industry on their position on lethal autonomous weapons.

The Dutch NGO Pax selected 50 companies on three criteria: developing technologies that might be related to killer robots, performing related military projects, and promising not to contribute to the future.

Using AI to allow weapon systems to autonomously select and attack targets has sparked ethical debate with warnings that it would threaten international ethics and proclaim a third revolution in the war after gunpowder and atomic bombing.

"Why don't we deny that companies like Microsoft and Amazon are currently developing controversial weapons that can kill people without direct intervention?" Frank Slijper, senior author of the report released on Monday, said.

Last year, Google, which announced guidelines for stealing AI for use in weapons systems, said in an analysis across 12 countries out of seven companies that it was in "best practices" such as "SoftSoft, best known as the human pepper." Turned out to be involved. robot.

Twenty-one companies were "medium interests" and 21 were classified into the "high interests" category, specifically Amazon and Microsoft, which bid on a $ 10 billion Pentagon contract to provide cloud infrastructure to the US military.

Stuart Russell, a professor of computer science at the University of California, said, "Autonomous weapons will inevitably become weapons of mass destruction, because if humans are not in the ring, one person can fire a million or 100 million weapons. "He said. Berkeley told AFP on Wednesday.

"In fact, autonomous weapons will be developed and can play a very big role in terms of campaigns to prevent the spread of autonomous weapons," he added.