"Perhaps Even More Dangerous than Nuclear Bombs": Tech Expert Toby Walsh on Artificial Intelligence

DER SPIEGEL: Would it even still be realistic at all to outlaw AI-controlled weapons, for instance through a counterpart to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, as you suggest in your new book "Machines Behaving Badly?" Walsh: Well, outlawing them may not always work perfectly, but it can prevent worse. There are quite a few examples of weapons that were initially used but were later outlawed. Think of the widespread use of poison gas in World War I. Or think of blinding lasers, which can blind soldiers. They were outlawed by a United Nations protocol in 1998 and have almost never appeared on battlefields since, even though civilian laser technology is, as we know, widely used. For anti-personnel mines, the ban doesn't work as well, but at least 40 million of them have been destroyed due to outlawing protocols, saving the lives of many children.