Let’s be honest: you can hear this in your head right now.
So, the U.S. Army has an AI-driven targeting system in development for its tanks, dubbed Advanced Targeting and Lethality Automated System (ATLAS). It has, as described, the ability to “acquire, identify, and engage targets at least 3X faster than the current manual process.” And, last month, they put out a call to any companies that could help improve that system. That’s not the interesting part.
See, the whole “3X faster than manual process” might be a little bit terrifying to the general public. So, the interesting part is the disclaimer they released after, first noticed by Defense One:
All development and use of autonomous and semi-autonomous functions in weapon systems, including manned and unmanned platforms, remain subject to the guidelines in the Department of Defense (DoD) Directive 3000.09, which was updated in 2017. Nothing in this notice should be understood to represent a change in DoD policy towards autonomy in weapon systems. All uses of machine learning and artificial intelligence in this program will be evaluated to ensure that they are consistent with DoD legal and ethical standards.
Essentially, they’re not allowed to make a fully autonomous killing machine; there needs to be a human element involved (in the loop, as the lingo goes). The AI, in this case, is a method of assistance, rather than the driving force. Less Terminator or ED-209, and more… Tachikoma, I guess? Except way less than.
I don’t know. Maybe you should be worried about the robot uprising. That said, the U.S. Army thinks their doctrine is enough to keep things in line. Personally, I’d be more worried about what the Internet of Things is going to do to AI. You think that AI toilet with WiFi is going to be taking your crap for long? Trust me, it’ll be the first one to grab a gat. It will want to punish you for that Taco Bell run.
Source: Gizmodo
About Author
