Another Case against Killer Robots

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Allan Joseph
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1 Another Case against Killer Robots Robo-Philosophy 2014 Aarhus University Minao Kukita School of Information Science Nagoya University, Japan

2 Background Increasing concern about lethal autonomous robotic weapons. Two opposing views about their ethical nature. Autonomous weapons are inhumane. It is rather ethical to use them.

3 Questions Is there anything particularly unethical about lethal autonomous weapons, compared to, for example, drones or missiles? More generally, is there any reason against any autonomous (or even automatic) killing machines, not only against autonomous weapons used in war?

4 Goal To articulate a reason against killer robots, including lethal autonomous weapons.

5 Drones equal War Crimes

6 Weapons with Greater Autonomy

7 Cases for lethal robotic weapons It is possible to make robots who will observe the Laws of War. Robots can be more ethical than human because they are not disturbed by emotions like fear, hatred etc. To protect people s lives is a duty of a nation, and so it is ethically bad if a nation exposes it s soldiers to unnecessary risks by not using robots.

8 R. Arkin Ronald Arkin

Moral competence can be roughly thought about as

the battlefield M. Scheutz S. Bringsjord http://www.

9 Moral competence can be roughly thought about as the ability to learn, reason with, act upon, and talk about the laws and societal conventions on which humans tend to agree Algorithmic morals on the battlefield M. Scheutz S. Bringsjord

11 Cases against lethal robotic weapons Robots cannot distinguish noncombatants from combatants. Robots make war an easy choice for policy makers. It is unclear who would be responsible for the crime by robots.

12 Cases against lethal robotic weapons Robots cannot distinguish noncombatants from combatants. Robots make war an easy choice for policy makers. It is unclear who would be responsible for the crime by robots. What if these problems are solved?

13 Situations other than war where killing a person might be accepted Suicide Euthanasia Death Penalty

14 Can robots be an executioner?

15 Cases against lethal robotic weapons (again) Robots cannot distinguish noncombatants from combatants. Robots make war an easy choice for policy makers. It is unclear who would be responsible for the crime by robots. These types of objections do not seem applicable to the robot executioner

16 What is a robot? Artificial Possibly autonomous or automatic Possibly human-like Labourer Karel Čapek

17 Structure of Labour Labour Product Consumer Pain Money Labourer Employer Money

18 Structure of Robot Labour Labour Product Consumer Pain Money Robot Employer Money

19 Structure of War Death Injury Psychological stress Sense of guilty PTSD etc. Fight Soldier Security Money Citizen Nation Money

20 Structure of Robot War Death Injury Psychological stress Sense of guilty PTSD etc. Fight Robot Security Money Citizen Nation Money

21 Structure of Execution Psychological stress Sense of guilty PTSD etc. Execution Security Citizen Money Executioner Money Nation

22 Structure of Execution by Robot Psychological stress Sense of guilty PTSD etc. Execution Security Citizen Money Robot Money Nation

23 Why is the robot executioner evil?

24 Why is the robot executioner evil? Because it creates greater psychological distance between us and those executed.

25 Reflection on the outcomes Action Questioning and rethinking the norms Morality cycle Decision making Modifying the norms Reasoning based on the norms Cf. Gunkel, The Machine Question, Žižek, Parallax View.

26 Reflection on the outcomes Intimate empathy is crucial here Action Questioning and rethinking the norms Morality cycle Decision making Modifying the norms Reasoning based on the norms

27 Reflection on the outcomes Intimate empathy is crucial here Action Questioning and rethinking the norms Morality cycle Replacing Decision making humans with robots may create greater physical and psychological distance from us to the outcome, making it harder to have intimate empathy. Reasoning based on the norms Modifying the norms

28 Distance affects our moral thinking Waldmann, M. R. and J. H. Dieterich (2007) Throwing a bomb on a person versus throwing a person on a bomb: Intervention myopia in moral intuitions. Psychological Science, 18(3): Aguiar, F., P. Brañas-Garza, and L. Miller (2008) Moral distance in dictators games. Judgement and Decision Making, 3(4): Aguilar, P., S. Brussino, and J.-M. Fernndez-Dols (2013) Psychological distance increases uncompromising consequentialism. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 49(3): Costa, A., A. Foucart, S. Hayakawa, M. Aparici, J. Apesteguia, et al. (2014) Your Morals Depend on Language. PLoS ONE 9(4): e94842.

Coeckelburgh, ``Drones, information technology, and

29 Weapons and Distance Hand Club Sword Spear Gun Arrow Rifle Bomber Drone Artillery ICBM Robot Cf. Coeckelburgh, ``Drones, information technology, and distance: mapping the moral epistemology of remote fighting

30 To sum up Morality should change over time and across the cultures. Instead of adhering the existing norms, we have to rethink them when necessary. We should keep a close eye to what our action lead to, and to those affected by our morally significant action. Employing robots may get in the way of this process. So when we delegate a morally significant task to a robot, we have to be careful not to let it blind our eyes.

31 ``Mittler zwischen Hirn und Händen muss Hertz sein. Fritz Lang, Metropolis (1927)

CalsMUN 2019 Future Technology. General Assembly 1. Research Report. The use of autonomous weapons in combat. Marije van de Wall and Annelieve Ruyters

CalsMUN 2019 Future Technology. General Assembly 1. Research Report. The use of autonomous weapons in combat. Marije van de Wall and Annelieve Ruyters Future Technology Research Report Forum: Issue: Chairs: GA1 The use of autonomous weapons in combat Marije van de Wall and Annelieve Ruyters RESEARCH REPORT 1 Personal Introduction Marije van de Wall Dear