With significant advances in robotics and AI, technology leaders have called for safeguards to avoid "destabilizing effects." They warned that "once this Pandora's box is opened, it will be hard to close."
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More than 100 leaders in the industries of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics signed an open letter on Monday warning of a "third revolution" in warfare, when the UN's Conference of the Conventional Weapons was scheduled to meet to discuss the subject.
"As companies building the technologies in artificial intelligence and robotics that may be repurposed to develop autonomous weapons, we feel especially responsible in raising this alarm," said the letter.
The letter's signatories included major players in the industry, including SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and Mustafa Suleyman, who founded Google's DeepMind and heads its applied AI unit.
The signatories urged the UN to work hard at "finding means to prevent an arms race in these weapons, to protect civilians from their misuse and to avoid destabilizing effects of these technologies."
World-renowned physicist Stephen Hawking has described AI as the "worst mistake ever made," while Musk has called it the greatest conceivable threat to our existence.
"These can be weapons of terror, weapons that despots and terrorists use against innocent populations, and weapons hacked to behave in undesirable ways," said the open letter published Sunday.
"We do not have long to act. Once this Pandora's box is opened, it will be hard to close."
Robots in our everyday lives
They are getting more and more similar to us - humanoid robots. And some of them actually perform pretty well in our world. Check out our favorite mechanical helpers.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Roboy - nice to meet you!
He's probably one of the hippest humanoid robots at the moment: Roboy. He has a smooth skin and muscles and tendons, which give him an even more human-like appearance. Roboy can shake hands; he even talks and is able to show emotions - once in a while.
Image: Getty Images/Afp/John MacDougall
A sensitive robot
Another good example for humanoid robots is Justin, who hails from the German Institute for Aerospace (DLR). This little guys descends from technology - a robot arm - that spent five years on the International Space Station. He was made for space! But Justin can also do very earthly things such as window cleaning.
Image: DW/F. Schmidt
Scribbling robots
A trained writer needs a year to write a Torah scroll. The robot "bios" wrote it down in only ten weeks. Armed with a pen and ink, he drew a total of 304,805 Hebrew letters on a 80-meter roll of paper. But there's a snag: the work of robots is not kosher.
Image: robotlab
Wo keyi bang ni ma?
When it comes to gadgets, China is usually near the forefront. And that doesn't matter whether useful or fanciful gadgets are concerned. Humanoid robots are already responsible for different tasks in some Chinese restaurants, such as taking a guest's order.
Image: picture-alliance/epa/P. Hilton
Food is ready!
And of course - the small humanoid machines are also outstandingly qualified for serving the food. Robots don't get tired, they don't grumble - they just do their job. But if I were you, I wouldn't complain...
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/ChinaFotoPress/MAXPPP
Robot chef
Robots are not only used as waitstaff, but also at the stove. Like here, but the scope of activities is limited to warming pre-prepared meals. The preparation and cooking needs to be done by a human colleague.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/ChinaFotoPress/MAXPPP
More machine than robot
But not all restaurant robots look as humanoid as the examples in this gallery. This one is apparently more functional - he doesn't have a head, arms or legs. But since he isn't working in front of guests, it's probably secondary.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
At least entertaining!
So probably there are others responsible for the entertainment - like in the robot restaurant near Shanghai. The entertainment seems to go down well - more or less - as the comments on the internet show: "Fantastic experience but the food is horrible."