Elon Musk Among 100 AI Entrepreneurs Calling For UN Ban On Autonomous Weapons

The founders of 116 robotics and artificial intelligence companies have issued an open letter calling for an international ban on “killer robots,” warning that weaponized AI poses a genuine threat to the human race.

The letter was signed by experts from 26 countries, including Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk, and released at the weekend opening of the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Melbourne, Australia.

The scientists and entrepreneurs called on the United Nations “to urgently address the challenge of lethal autonomous weapons (often called ‘killer robots’) and ban their use internationally.”

Fears Of A Terminator-Run World

One of the organizers of the letter, Toby Walsh, professor of AI the University of New South Wales in Sydney, said in a statement that the “letter is the first time that AI and robotics companies have taken a joint stance on the issue.”

The letter is largely symbolic. The U.S. military already has acknowledged that it is seeking to weaponize AI and that Russia, China and others already have made strides in autonomous weapons that communicate with each other and take out targets using artificial intelligence.

Too Late?

“They are definitely moving in that direction,” Walsh told Benzinga earlier this month. “It’s unclear how many systems are operational in the field. I think any sphere of battle, you can name a prototype.”

The letter notes that 123 member nations of the UN’s Review Conference of the Convention on Conventional Weapons unanimously agreed to begin formal discussions on autonomous weapons.

“Unless people want to see new weapons of mass destruction, in the form of vast swarms of lethal microdrones spreading around the world, it’s imperative to step up and support the United Nations’ efforts to create a treaty banning lethal autonomous weapons,” signatory Stuart Russell, the founder of technology company Bayesian Logic Inc, said in a statement.

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