Hi-Tech Crime CRIM30375

World split on how to regulate 'killer robots' DARPA is developing an autonomous anti-submarine warfare vessel, ACTUV. DARPA Sean Welsh , University of Canterbury Diplomats from around the world met in Geneva last week for the United Nations’ third Informal Expert Meeting on lethal autonomous weapons systems ( LAWS ), commonly dubbed “killer robots”. Their aim was to make progress on deciding how, or if, LAWS should be regulated under international humanitarian law . A range of views were expressed at the meeting, from Pakistan being in favour of a full ban, to the UK favouring no new regulation for LAWS, and several positions in between. Despite the range of views on offer, there was some common ground. It is generally agreed that LAWS are governed by international humanitarian law. For example, robots cannot ignore the principles of distinction between civilians and combatants , or proportionality in the scale of atta...

Robot law: what happens if intelligent machines commit crimes? I’d buy that for a dollar. Or, just steal it from you. elbragon , CC BY Jeffrey Wale , Bournemouth University and David Yuratich , Bournemouth University The fear of powerful artificial intelligence and technology is a popular theme, as seen in films such as Ex Machina , Chappie , and the Terminator series. And we may soon find ourselves addressing fully autonomous technology with the capacity to cause damage. While this may be some form of military wardroid or law enforcement robot, it could equally be something not created to cause harm, but which could nevertheless do so by accident or error. What then? Who is culpable and liable when a robot or artificial intelligence goes haywire? Clearly, our way of approaching this doesn’t neatly fit into society’s view of guilt and justice. While some may choose to dismiss this as too far into the future to concern us, remember ...

We could soon face a robot crimewave ... the law needs to be ready Off to robojail? Shutterstock Christopher Markou , University of Cambridge This is where we are at in 2017: sophisticated algorithms are both predicting and helping to solve crimes committed by humans ; predicting the outcome of court cases and human rights trials ; and helping to do the work done by lawyers in those cases. By 2040, there is even a suggestion that sophisticated robots will be committing a good chunk of all the crime in the world . Just ask the toddler who was run over by a security robot at a California mall last year. How do we make sense of all this? Should we be terrified? Generally unproductive. Should we shrug our shoulders as a society and get back to Netflix? Tempting, but no. Should we start making plans for how we deal with all of this? Absolutely. Fear of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a big theme. Technology can be a downright scary th...