Elon Musk and AI leaders call on UN to ban “killer robots”

Artificial intelligence could be used by terrorists or hacked "to be used in undesirable ways," say robotics leaders

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and 116 other leaders in artificial intelligence (AI) are calling on the United Nations to ban the use of so-called “killer robots” or autonomous weapons.

“Lethal autonomous weapons threaten to become the third revolution in warfare. Once developed, they will permit armed conflict to be fought at a scale greater than ever, and at timescales faster than humans can comprehend,” the experts warn in an open letter.

“These can be weapons of terror, weapons that despots and terrorists use against innocent populations, and weapons hacked to behave in undesirable ways,” the letter says.

The United States is one of a dozen countries, including China, Israel, South Korea, Russia and Britain, that are developing autonomous weapons systems, according to Human Rights Watch, CNN reported.

Musk has said that artificial intelligence is “potentially more dangerous than nukes,” and last month said that  AI poses “vastly more risk than North Korea.”

If you're not concerned about AI safety, you should be. Vastly more risk than North Korea. pic.twitter.com/2z0tiid0lc

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 12, 2017