Most relevant to AI alignment, and a pertinent question to focus on for interested readers/listeners is: if we are are unable to establish a governance mechanism as a global community on the concept that we should not let AI make the decision to kill humans, then what effects will this have on and can we still deal with more subtle short-term alignment considerations and long-term AI x-risk?

Podcast page and audio: https://futureoflife.org/2020/03/16/on-lethal-autonomous-weapons-with-paul-scharre/

Transcript:

Lucas Perry: Welcome to the AI Alignment Podcast. I’m Lucas Perry. Today’s conversation is with Paul Scharre and explores the issue of lethal autonomous weapons. And so just what is the relation of lethal autonomous weapons and the related policy and governance issues to AI alignment and long-term AI risk? Well there’s a key question to keep in mind throughout this entire conversation and it’s that: if we cannot establish a governance mechanism as a global community on the concept that we should not let AI make the decision to kill, then how can we deal with more subtle near term issues and eventual long term safety issues about AI systems? This question is aimed at exploring the idea that autonomous weapons and their related governance represent a possibly critical first step on the international cooperation and coordination of global AI issues. If we’re committed to developing beneficial AI and eventually beneficial AGI then how important is this first step in AI governance and what precedents and foundations will it lay for future AI efforts and issues? So it’s this perspective that I suggest keeping in mind throughout the conversation. And many thanks to FLI’s Emilia Javorsky for much help on developing the questions for this podcast.

Paul Scharre is a Senior Fellow and Director of the Technology and National Security Program at the Center for a New American Security. He is the award-winning author of Army of None: Autonomous Weapons and the Future of War, which won the 2019 Colby Award and was named one of Bill Gates’ top five books of 2018.

Mr. Scharre worked in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) where he played a leading role in establishing policies on unmanned and autonomous systems and emerging weapons technologies. Mr. Scharre led the DoD working group that drafted DoD D...

Autonomous Weapons

See also