AI developers promise they won't automate murder, with one notable exception

Thousands of artificial intelligence developers and researchers -- including Elon Musk, Google DeepMind co-founder Demis Hassabis, and Google Machine Intelligence head Jeffrey Dean -- just signed a "Lethal Autonomous Weapons Pledge," vowing to resist delegating the decision to murder in a military context to a machine. On its face, this pledge seems like a step in the right direction, a recognition of the concerns of tech employees. But here's the main problem with this pledge: the top drone manufacturers for the U.S. military -- including but not limited to Northrop Grumman, Boeing, General Atomics, and Textron, which make up 66 percent of the U.S. drone military market -- did not sign on to the contract. "We will neither participate in nor support the development, manufacture, trade, or use of lethal autonomous weapons," the pledge reads. "We ask that technology companies and organizations, as well as leaders, policymakers, and other individuals, join us in this pledge."