Elon Musk, DeepMind founders, and others sign pledge to not develop lethal AI weapon systems

<em>A remote-controlled robot equipped with a machine gun under development by the United States Marine Corps.</em>

Tech leaders, including Elon Musk and the three co-founders of Google's AI subsidiary DeepMind, have signed a pledge promising to not develop "lethal autonomous weapons."

It's the latest move from an unofficial and global coalition of researchers and executives that's opposed to the propagation of such technology. The pledge warns that weapon systems that use AI to "[select] and [engage] targets without human intervention" pose moral and pragmatic threats. Morally, the signatories argue, the decision to take a human life "should never be delegated to a machine." On the pragmatic front, they say that the spread of such weaponry would be "dangerously destabilizing for every country and individual."

The pledge was published today at the...

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