Chinese and Russian AI with access to NUKES could start WW3 and spark ... trends now
Russia and China must ensure only humans, and never artificial intelligence, are given control of nuclear weapons to avoid a potential doomsday scenario, a senior US official has declared.
Washington, London and Paris have all agreed to maintain total human control over nuclear weapons, State Department arms control official Paul Dean said, as a failsafe to prevent any technological glitches from plunging humanity into a devastating conflict.
Dean, principal deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of Arms Control, Deterrence and Stability, yesterday urged Moscow and Beijing to follow suit.
'We think it is an extremely important norm of responsible behaviour and we think it is something that would be very welcome in a P5 context,' he said, referring to the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.
It comes as regulators warned that AI is facing its 'Oppenheimer moment' and are calling on governments to develop legislation restricting its application to military technology before it is too late.
The alarming statement, referencing J. Robert Oppenheimer who helped invent the atomic bomb in 1945 before advocating for controls over the spread of nuclear arms, was made at a conference in Vienna on Monday, where civilian, military and technology officials from more than 100 countries met to discuss the prospect of militarised AI systems.
Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missile is launched from an undisclosed location in North Korea
Washington, London and Paris have all agreed to maintain total human control over nuclear weapons, State Department arms control official Paul Dean said, urging Russia and China to follow suit (Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile launch pictured)
A Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile is pictured in a silo in an undisclosed location in the US
Though the integration of AI into military hardware is increasing at a rapid clip, the technology is still very much in its nascent stages.
But as of yet, there is no international treaty that exists to ban or limit the development of lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS).
'This is the Oppenheimer Moment of our generation,' said Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg. 'Now is the time to agree on international rules and norms.'
During his opening remarks at the Vienna Conference on Autonomous Weapons Systems, Schallenberg described AI as the most significant advancement in warfare since the invention of gunpowder over a millennia ago.
The only difference was that AI is even more dangerous, he continued.
'At least let us make sure that the most profound and far-reaching decision — who lives and who dies — remains in the hands of humans and not of machines,'
