When asked about robots, people are often afraid of the looming concern of robots taking their jobs.

But there’s something else that you should be even more worried about…

Robots are more likely to kill you than take your job. And if we aren’t careful about robotics technology, we could be in some serious trouble in the coming years…

This is a serious issue. The world’s leading robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) experts are calling for the ban on the development and use of killer robots.

Tesla’s Elon Musk and Alphabet’s Mustafa Suleyman are leading a group of 116 specialists from 26 countries all with the same goal in mind: calling for the ban on autonomous weapons.

This type of weapons includes drones, tanks, and automated machine guns. And the group of 116 specialists is voicing its concerns over them. The group has sent an open letter to the United Nations, calling for it to assist in the prevention of the current arms race that’s happening with killer robots.

In the letter, the group emphasizes that the arms race could have an impact on and guide us through the “third revolution in warfare,” after gunpowder and nuclear arms.

The group writes:

Once developed, [lethal autonomous weapons] will permit armed conflict to be fought at a scale greater than ever, and at timescales faster than humans can comprehend. These can be weapons of terror, weapons that despots and terrorists use against innocent populations, and weapons hacked to behave in undesirable ways.

The last thing we need to be worrying about is technology turning on and causing us harm. We already face enough threats from humanity every day…

One way to prevent any potential harm is to build up cybersecurity efforts. There’s a great risk for robots and similar technology to be hacked. Not having adequate security on this kind of technology would be completely irresponsible of us — not to mention, it would have the potential to do incredible harm.

If we’re still having data compromised from hackers stealing people’s credit card information and social security numbers, then what makes us ready to have robots possessing strength, agility, and intelligence?

Recently, Boston Dynamics released a video showing off one of its robots doing acrobatics. On one side, this type of technology is amazing — watching a robot land a backflip is incredible. However, the threat of that robot being hacked should be a constant fear. Imagine the things a robot could do if it were controlled by the wrong person…

Toby Walsh, a scientia professor of AI at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, had the following to say:

Nearly every technology can be used for good and bad, and artificial intelligence is no different. It can help tackle many of the pressing problems facing society today; inequality and poverty, the challenges posed by climate change and the ongoing global financial crisis. However, the same technology can also be used in autonomous weapons to industrialize war.

We need to make decisions today choosing which of these futures we want.

The conversation about setting boundaries and ensuring that technologies do more good than harm has to happen today. Technology is advancing at a rapid pace. And before we know it, robots will be able to do incredible things on their own. And we’ll have to make sure that technology is used for good rather than for harming anyone.

I think one line in the letter to the U.N. says it best. The group of specialists writes: “We do not have long to act. Once this Pandora’s box is opened, it will be hard to close.”

This rings very true. The time to act and be aware is now — there’s no room to sit on this. The technology is already here and advancing. Companies need to know the lines not to cross, and more importantly, we need the cybersecurity to back this technology.

Until next time,

Jennifer Clark
Pro Trader Today