No Terminators, but Autonomous Systems Vital to DoD Futur Defense News

As autonomous technology continues to evolve, the Pentagon finds itself being pulled in two directions, enticed by the capabilities that autonomous systems could provide while also insistent it always be subservient to humans, and a set of human morals and mindsets. That tension was on full display Aug. 25, when a new report from a key Pentagon advisory group called for an acceleration of autonomous systems within the US military at the same time the country's second highest ranking uniformed officer warned that there will need to be limits on how the technology is used in order to avoid the dreaded killer-robot scenario. Speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Gen. Paul Selva, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, laid out his concerns with the "Terminator Conundrum," the idea that a fully autonomous system could be created with the capability to make decisions about when and where to inflict violence. While noting that technologists in the Pentagon believe that capability is still a decade away, Selva noted that 15 years ago he was told a digital rendering of the world would be impossible and never happen, before dryly telling the audience" "So I guess Google Earth is an impossibility." He also threw his support behind the idea of a treaty or global convention against the creation of wholly autonomous systems that can operate without a man in the loop controlling it, saying: "I do think we need to examine the bodies of law and convention that might constrain anyone in the world from building that kind of a system.