I've been hanging around the United Nations these past few days attending events related to consultations on lethal autonomous weapons systems—so-called killer robots. These are AI-powered weapons systems that can select and strike targets without human control. This is not the stuff of science fiction. These weapons exist today, and they are becoming more powerful—and, frankly, more accessible. They can be relatively inexpensive and deployed by both states and non-state actors, including terrorist groups.
1) No, obviously the UN can't do that and very probably no-one can. It's not even a sensible thing to want. It's the kind of thing you want if you just assume that trying to ban weapons is always good.
2) Anna Hehir, like all of these people, is just some woman who works for the global liberal bureaucratic hive mind. She's never had a real job in her life, she doesn't know anything about these topics or any real-world topics, and there is no reason to listen to her ever. She doesn't even have any real authority within FLI because it's completely run from the top by horrible physics nerds who know even less than she does. The papers this organization puts out just rationalize the views of its founders, which are not considered views at all, but chosen to situate them personally as important and visionary people. This is the second such scheme they have tried for the purpose after they spent the 2010s trying and failing to become popular science stars like Michio Kaku or NdGT.
3) Even within these constraints, all of this is still fake. FLI is a totally nonstrategic organization with lazy and overstretched founders who don't really have any domain knowledge or administrative skills. So it just blunders around failing at things until it is left saying things like "even if key players do not join such a treaty, it could still make a meaningful difference". Translation: they know they're fake and they're not even really trying.
1) No, obviously the UN can't do that and very probably no-one can. It's not even a sensible thing to want. It's the kind of thing you want if you just assume that trying to ban weapons is always good.
2) Anna Hehir, like all of these people, is just some woman who works for the global liberal bureaucratic hive mind. She's never had a real job in her life, she doesn't know anything about these topics or any real-world topics, and there is no reason to listen to her ever. She doesn't even have any real authority within FLI because it's completely run from the top by horrible physics nerds who know even less than she does. The papers this organization puts out just rationalize the views of its founders, which are not considered views at all, but chosen to situate them personally as important and visionary people. This is the second such scheme they have tried for the purpose after they spent the 2010s trying and failing to become popular science stars like Michio Kaku or NdGT.
3) Even within these constraints, all of this is still fake. FLI is a totally nonstrategic organization with lazy and overstretched founders who don't really have any domain knowledge or administrative skills. So it just blunders around failing at things until it is left saying things like "even if key players do not join such a treaty, it could still make a meaningful difference". Translation: they know they're fake and they're not even really trying.