The world’s largest robot manufacturers have published an “Open Letter” about arming robots
rael-science
The world’s largest robot manufacturers have published an “Open Letter” about arming robots
Although robotics has reached a very high level today, we can now see some robots in our daily lives. Spot, a Boston Dynamics dog-like robot, worked in the field during the coronavirus epidemic.
On the other hand, advanced robots have been seen in different parts
of the world as armed with the purpose of killing people, in addition to
humanitarian missions. Today we received an open letter from the
world’s giant robot manufacturers against arming robots. Robot
manufacturers, including Boston Dynamics, stressed that robots should
not be armed.
Description of Robot Armament Manufacturers
As with any new technology offering new opportunities, the emergence
of advanced mobile robots creates the possibility of abuse. Unreliable
individuals may use them to violate civil rights or to threaten, harm or
intimidate others. One area of particular concern is armament. We
believe that adding weapons to robots that are controlled remotely or
autonomously, that are widely accessible to the public and that can move
to previously inaccessible places where people live and work, creates
new risks of harm and serious ethical problems. The armed use of these
new capable robots will not only damage the enormous benefits they will
bring to society, but also undermine public confidence in technology.
For these reasons, we do not support equipping our general-purpose
robots with increased mobility. For those of us who have talked about
this topic in the past, and for those who are interested in it for the
first time, we now feel a new urgency in light of the growing public
concern in recent months caused by a small number of people explicitly
stating their temporary attempts to arm commercially available robots.
We promise not to equip our general-purpose robots with increased
mobility or the software we develop to provide advanced robotics, and
not to encourage others to do so. Whenever possible, we carefully
examine our clients’ intended applications to avoid potential use of
weapons. We are also committed to exploring the development of
technological features that can reduce or mitigate these risks. To be
clear, we are not interested in existing technologies that countries and
government agencies use to protect themselves and enforce their laws.
We understand that our commitment alone is not enough to completely
eliminate these risks, so we urge lawmakers to work with us to promote
the safe use of these robots and prohibit their misuse. We also call on
every organization, developer, researcher and user in the robotics
community to make similar commitments not to add, allow, support or
include weapons of such robots. We believe that the benefits of these
technologies for humanity far outweigh the risks of misuse, and we look
forward to a bright future in which humans and robots will work side by
side to solve some of the world’s problems.”
The mentioned letter was signed by Agility Robotics, Clearpath
Robotics, Open Robotics, Unitree and ANYbotics, as well as Boston
Dynamics.