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Google drops pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance

(www.washingtonpost.com)
617 points jbegley | 2 comments | 04 Feb 25 20:28 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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blackeyeblitzar ◴[04 Feb 25 20:49 UTC] No.42938399[source]▶
Other countries will use AI for weapons - shouldn’t the EU and US also do that to remain competitive?
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jsheard ◴[04 Feb 25 20:55 UTC] No.42938513[source]▶
It's not exactly unheard of for certain weapons to be declared off-limits by most countries even if the "bad guys" are using them - think chemical and biological agents, landmines, cluster munitions, blinding weapons and so on. I doubt there will ever be treaties completely banning any use of AI in warfare but there might be bans on specific applications, particularly using it to make fully autonomous weapons which select and dispatch targets with no human in the loop, for similar reasons to why landmines are mostly banned.
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nradov ◴[04 Feb 25 21:08 UTC] No.42938716[source]▶
Landmines and cluster munitions have been among Ukraine's most effective weapons for resisting the Russian invasion. Without those, Ukraine would likely have already lost the war. It's so bizarre how some people who face no real risks themselves think that those weapons should be declared off-limits.
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1. jsheard ◴[04 Feb 25 21:10 UTC] No.42938756[source]▶
Nobody said they're not effective during a war, the problem is they remain effective against any random civilians who happen to stumble across them for a long time after the war is over. Potentially decades, as seen in Cambodia.

It would be a bit of a Pyrrhic victory to repel an attempted takeover of your land, only for that land to end up contaminated with literally millions of landmines because you didn't have a mutual agreement against using them.

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2. nradov ◴[04 Feb 25 22:05 UTC] No.42939600[source]▶
People who are defending against an existential threat today don't have the luxury of worrying about contamination tomorrow. I think at this point Ukraine will take a Pyrrhic victory if the alternative is their end as a fully sovereign nation state. And let's be clear about the current situation: if Ukraine and Russia had a mutual agreement against using those weapons then Ukraine would probably have already lost. Landmines in particular are extremely effective as a force multiplier for outnumbered defenders.