(by Massimiliano D'Elia) General Pasquale Preziosa, President of PRP Channel dealt extensively days ago with the issue of microdrons and their dual development, a technology that immediately attracted important fringes of terrorist groups
In this regard, they wanted to investigate the origin of a video that left everyone dismayed. Last November, the first Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) was held where a group of government experts on lethal autonomous weapons systems met at the United Nations in Geneva. A campaign to stop killer robots has been going on for some time and this is encouraging the United Nations to push forward with international regulation of autonomous weapons. Finally, good news because this killer technology could change the future of robotics, society and the world balance.
All those present were impressed by a video demonstrating the growing concern about autonomous weapons. The video, called "Slaughterbots" and produced with the support of the Future of Life Institute by Elon Musk, combines graphic violence with a technical plausibility sufficient to imagine a very bleak scenario: an imaginary near future in which the autonomous microdrones carry explosives and kill thousands of people around the world.
So the developers of the killer micro drone: "We are not going to show the full video here because it contains a series of violent scenes, including a terrorist attack in a classroom, however you can find it on the Future of Life website".
This statement did not convince all those who spoke because the drone's potential is apocalyptic and it would seem to be addressed, as it is assembled, to a public that is not exactly ordinary and peaceful. Many have criticized the video and the developers because such a demonstration calls into question the entire robotics industry.
Asked whether the film relies on fear, a colleague, Toby Walsh, an artificial intelligence professor at the University of New South Wales, disagrees. “It's not a question of fear,” he says. “The Russian ambassador to the United Nations said instead that we shouldn't worry about lethal autonomous weapons because they are too far from production and their use in the field. On the contrary, the film was designed to demonstrate how close we are to autonomous weapons. It shows what happens when some existing technologies are brought together and any abuse that technology could suffer.
At the end of the conference everyone criticized the video and said that it is necessary to speak only of the beneficial aspects that this technology can develop for the progress of humanity and not to propose extreme situations tending to affect the emotions of the public. This approach provides the public with a distorted view of robotics, thus not favoring its peaceful development.
What was said by the experts in the sector is partially acceptable because the video, on the other hand, has shown how far can be achieved with this technology that enhances the autonomy of the drone which, in fact, is not remotely controlled, but is previously programmed for mission. Reality has been demonstrated: why hide it?
We already find the use of such technology on the battlefields. The Russian army recently suffered an attack by craft drones with embedded GPS in Syria. Apparently they were not teleguidati, but they followed a pre-established route. The most disturbing fact is that this drone can be built entirely by finding materials from the web, including the explosive.
Apparently, therefore, the future is already a reality.