Killer robot arms race: AI faces its ‘Oppenheimer moment’
- Civilian, military and technology leaders convene for international conference in Vienna
- Weapon systems that independently select and strike targets using AI are a focus of talks
Regulators who want to get a grip on an emerging generation of artificially intelligent killing machines may not have much time left to do so, governments were warned.
As autonomous weapons systems rapidly proliferate, including across battlefields in Ukraine and Gaza, algorithms and unmanned aerial vehicles are already helping military planners decide whether or not to hit targets.
Soon, that decision could be outsourced entirely to the machines.
“This is the Oppenheimer Moment of our generation,” said Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg, referencing J. Robert Oppenheimer, who helped invent the atomic bomb in 1945 before going on to advocate for controls over the spread of nuclear arms.
Civilian, military and technology officials from more than 100 countries convened Monday in Vienna to discuss how their economies can control the merger of AI with military technologies – two sectors that have recently animated investors, helping pushing stock valuations to historic highs.
