Navy report warns of robot uprising, suggests a strong moral compass

You know, when armchair futurists (and jive talkin' bloggists) make note of some of the scary new tech making the rounds in defense circles these days it's one thing, but when the Doomsday Scenarios come from official channels, that's when we start to get nervous. According to a report published by the California State Polytechnic University (with data made available by the U.S. Navy's Office of Naval Research) the sheer scope of the military's various AI projects is so vast that it is impossible for anyone to fully understand exactly what's going on. "With hundreds of programmers working on millions of lines of code for a single war robot," says Patrick Lin, the chief compiler of the report, "no one has a clear understanding of what's going on, at a small scale, across the entire code base." And what we don't understand can eventually hunt us down and kill us. This isn't idle talk, either -- a software malfunction just last year caused US. Army robots to aim at friendly targets (fortunately, no shots were fired). The solution, Dr. Lin continues, is to teach robots "battlefield ethics... a warrior code." Of course, the government has had absolutely no problems with ethics over the years -- so programming its killer robots with some rudimentary values should prove relatively simple.

[skyblaze @ Feb 18th 2009 6:00PM]

lol, im supposed to be afraid of a honda...

[Wii60 @ Feb 18th 2009 6:13PM]

The Honda were created by man.
They rebelled.
13 Live among us.
One will be revealed.

[Takashi @ Feb 18th 2009 7:32PM]

Dramatic reenactment:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v90PVDOIt7c

[Wormbolt @ Feb 18th 2009 8:33PM]

The Hondas look just like us now, only hotter!

[thedesolate1 @ Feb 19th 2009 1:36AM]

You must embrace our new Honda MKII overlords or you will be deleted.

[EricR @ Feb 19th 2009 9:26AM]

Wii60:

I hear they look like us now.

[Seneca @ Feb 19th 2009 10:04AM]

I think GM had the same response to the Civic and look where it got them.

[Benson @ Feb 19th 2009 2:47PM]

And they have a plan.

[nerdtalker @ Feb 18th 2009 6:01PM]

Last time I heard the words "strong moral compass," something tells me it didn't end well.

Why is my brain associating "moral compass" with bad... OOOhhhh...

[OneLove @ Feb 19th 2009 12:49PM]

my moral compass is in my pants

[Stevo @ Feb 19th 2009 3:33PM]

[dot] [dot] [dot]

[gwak @ Feb 18th 2009 6:09PM]

Love the graphic - all fear chunky cheese drummer bot! ;-]

[Chaos Theory @ Feb 18th 2009 6:06PM]

we have nothing to fear but fear itself

and R.O.B. the robot

[Shinigami @ Feb 18th 2009 7:02PM]

Time to start making EMP guns!!!

[Badger_badger_badger @ Feb 18th 2009 6:07PM]

KIL

[skyblaze @ Feb 18th 2009 6:33PM]

i see your hollow ichigo and raise you a renji drinking wine (or blood. never knew which.)

[Samurai Jack @ Feb 18th 2009 8:18PM]

Sorry, I just wanted to get my avatar in there. Take that Ichigo.

[Shaka @ Feb 19th 2009 1:38AM]

It seems like our government is hard at work trying to create skynet.
Military AI Programmer cup. Golden!

[skyblaze @ Feb 19th 2009 7:40AM]

I see what you did there, shaka-kon XD

[Menos @ Feb 19th 2009 7:43AM]

*points to avatar*

need I say more? perish. all of you.

[Shaka @ Feb 19th 2009 8:10AM]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUf6aMYeHyI
Menos
Like fricken laser beams much?

[Menos @ Feb 19th 2009 7:58PM]

negative.

(funny vid, though.)

[trevor @ Feb 20th 2009 12:24AM]

something tells me i don't belong here...

(I knew I shoulda taken that left turn at Albuquerque)

[MaddyG @ Feb 18th 2009 6:11PM]

So, the solution of not being able to understand millions of lines of existing code is to add few more million lines of code of "moral compass", which would prevent the existing millions of lines of code from aiming at us?

Or, they could just hard-wire the 3 principles in each robot.

[Matt @ Feb 18th 2009 6:17PM]

If person = friendly

Then turn gun around.

[Jarek @ Feb 19th 2009 1:57AM]

Small problem: these are military robots, so the programmers won't be able to get past the first part of the first law without a clash with project, er, requirements.

[AMiSH PiRATE @ Feb 19th 2009 9:13AM]

the first of the first three rules would negate the very thing the robots are being built to do: kill people.

[KAIKAI @ Feb 18th 2009 6:08PM]

where is Isaac Asimov when you need him =[

[Dillon @ Feb 18th 2009 6:36PM]

I'm sorry, but your display picture is making it impossible for my eyes to rotate over to your comment.

[Michael T. B @ Feb 18th 2009 6:49PM]

lmao

[Wormbolt @ Feb 18th 2009 8:37PM]

Great, now he won't be able to do anything for the rest of the day.

[videonevin @ Feb 18th 2009 6:11PM]

our only hope is EMP's

[sgt_easton @ Feb 18th 2009 6:57PM]

Nope. All the critical systems on the Air Force planes I work on are EMP shielded.

We're screwed.

[Mobius_1 @ Feb 18th 2009 6:59PM]

Help us, John Connor, you are our only hope.

[Kenneth @ Feb 18th 2009 7:25PM]

Will Smith knew it would happen

[Brian @ Feb 18th 2009 6:11PM]

Just what we need: Robots that say, "No."

[Benson @ Feb 19th 2009 3:07PM]

Remove their higher-brain inhibitors.

[The WC @ Feb 18th 2009 6:12PM]

Looks like anyone who bought a nuclear bunker will now have a reason to use it.

And what's with Patrick Lin being tagged four times?

[Matt @ Feb 18th 2009 6:17PM]

Dr with a space, Dr without a space, name with a space, name without a space.

Redundant. =/

[A.C.E.R. @ Feb 18th 2009 6:23PM]

I demand a Bender reference somewhere.

[MrNuclear @ Feb 18th 2009 8:39PM]

Kiss my shiny metal butt!

[??? @ Feb 18th 2009 6:25PM]

Surprised everyone missed the sarcasm in that last sentence.

Right? Right...?

[Randomness @ Feb 18th 2009 6:26PM]

I submitted this story to you guys yesterday!

[PhiPhi @ Feb 18th 2009 6:27PM]

All your moral compass are belong to us.

[Eldiablo @ Feb 18th 2009 6:28PM]

I'm sure they'll program it not to kill Americans. Leaving us Brits in the firing line. Given the lack of emotion from our new robot overlords, is 'friendly fire' the correct term?

Of course, the AI could learn this simple program and we're then we're stuffed.
10 - Kill All Humans
20 Goto 10

Probably get a Div/0 error once we'd been eliminated though, but hey, we're not around so who cares! :)

[dandmcd @ Feb 18th 2009 6:31PM]

Billy Bob!!!

[catbeller @ Feb 18th 2009 6:34PM]

How about: we use humans to aim guns.
Lots of problems solved.

[Wookie746 @ Feb 18th 2009 6:51PM]

Just program this in. It worked most of the time in Asimov's future.

1.A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2.A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3.A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

I just can't believe no one else already referenced this.

[Mobius_1 @ Feb 18th 2009 6:56PM]

Yes, but have you not seen I,Robot? Will Smith can't say no lies!

[sgt_easton @ Feb 18th 2009 7:01PM]

I think you missed the line that said "a software malfunction just last year caused US. Army robots to aim at friendly targets." Asimov's rules don't really apply when programming tells the robot to shoot people from the word "go."