Robots May Soon Storm War Fields

It wields guns and missile launchers. It can think for itself . And it is programmed to hunt and kill people. This is not a scene out of ‘The Terminator’ , but the dawning reality of robot wars. Military applications are the fastest growing area of robotics and machine-killers are all set to take over the war arena , a leading artificial intelligence expert has said. Noel Sharkey, well known for his role in the BBC serial Robot Wars, says he is scared by the pace at which armed forces across the world, especially in the United States, are adopting robot weapons and have done little to create international laws or an ethical code on their use. “In case of robot weapons, it is the robot which decides ‘who to kill’ , ‘where to kill’ and ‘when to kill’ . This is treading on a danger path,” Mr Sharkey, who was in Mumbai to attend a trade show on innovation, said. Noel Sharkey, well known for his role in the BBC serial Robot Wars, says he is scared by the pace at which armed forces across the world, especially in the United States, are adopting robot weapons and have done little to create international laws or an ethical code on their use. “In case of robot weapons, it is the robot which decides ‘who to kill’ , ‘where to kill’ and ‘when to kill’ . This is treading on a danger path,” Mr Sharkey, who was in Mumbai to attend a trade show on innovation, said. At the bleeding edge of military robotics is, of course, the US. Robots are an integral part of its $230-billion future combat systems project, says Mr Sharkey. “Military applications are the biggest growth area in robotics,” he adds, adding that the US is set to spend $4 billion by 2010 and $24 billion by 2013 on developing unmanned fully autonomous military robots, he said. “My area of research in artificial intelligence (AI) tells me that, AI cannot have conscious reasoning capabilities. As even the Geneva Convention does not describe the correct technical definition of a civilian, so how would it be defined in a machine , this is very dangerous as it would only give rise to innocent killings and a different kind of weapons of mass destruction,” Mr Sharkey argued. The US already has 4,000 robots in Iraq to help the military clear roadside bombs and also another one in use is called Bear which helps pick up wounded soldiers from the battlefield. “And that’s just the tip of the iceberg ,” says Mr Sharkey. “The US is also testing its latest addition to its air fleet called the Reaper, a pack of unmanned aeroplanes which talk to each other and decide which target to kill and in February last week, it also successfully tested another unmanned fully autonomous land vehicle named the Crusher, which is a 7-tonne strong truck fitted with guns and bombs,” the professor of artificial intelligence and robotics at Sheffield University told ET. According to Unmanned Systems Roadmap from 2007-2013 , apart from the US, China, Russia and India, are planning their first steps in developing unmanned aerial combat vehicles . Adding to this, even terrorists have got hold of robotics technologies and already planning to put them to use, Mr Sharkey says, “And this scares me a bit.”