Killer Robots For Export

The US Pentagon believes that China is working hard to challenge US miliatry supremacy on the battlefields of the future by vigorously pursuing Artificial Intelligence (AI) military programs and they dont want to lag behind. 

US Defense Secretay Mark Esper (pictured) says that China is exporting drones that it advertises as having lethal autonomy to the Middle East, It’s the first time that a senior Defense official has acknowledged that China is selling drones capable of taking life with little or no human oversight.

Speaking at the resent US National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence conference Esper said that,

“As we speak, the Chinese government is already exporting some of its most advanced military aerial drones to the Middle East, as it prepares to export its next-generation stealth UAVs when those come one line,” ....In addition, Chinese weapons manufacturers are selling drones advertised as capable of full autonomy, including the ability to conduct lethal targeted strikes.” 

The Chinese company Ziyan, for instance, markets the Blowfish A3, essentially a helicopter drone outfitted with a machine gun. The intelligent swarming attack technology enables as many as 10 unmanned helicopter drones to autonomously form up into a swarm

Esper also said Chinese surveillance software and hardware could help China develop AI. “All signs point to the construction of a 21st-century surveillance state designed to censor speech and deny basic human rights on an unprecedented scale. Look no further than its use of surveillance to systematically repress more than a million Muslim Uighurs,” he said. “Beijing has all the power and tools it needs to coerce Chinese industry and academia into supporting its government-led efforts.” 

The US Defense Innovation Board has put forward a list of AI principles for the US military, which listed human governability as key, in line with previous policy going back to 2012. Esper called the list comprehensive and applauded it. He said it was “equally troubling are the outside firms or multinational corporations that are inadvertently or tacitly providing the technology or research behind China’s unethical use of AI.”

One company that has received criticism recently for partnering with Chinese researchers is Google. Kent Walker, Senior Vice President for Global Affairs told the audience, “We have chosen to scope our operations there very carefully.” Walker added that the partnerships are limited to advertising and work that to support open-source coding initiatives. 

DefenseOne:        SputnikNews:     Global Times:

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