Inside the Plan to Teach Robots the Laws of War

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency , or DARPA , is looking to hire philosophers and pay them far more than philosophers usually make.

In its budget request from 2024 , DARPA had allotted $5 million to the AI ethics program, known as ASIMOV .

DARPA created the internet, stealth technology, and GPS , and funded research into the efficacy of psychic abilities and the feasibility of using houseplants as spies.

Donald Trump ’s pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency said one of his priorities would be to “make the US the global leader of A.I. ” Trump has promised that he would revoke a number of Biden administration regulations aimed at controlling the use of artificial intelligence.

Can you even teach ethics to a piece of technology with no capacity for doubt?.

In its current state, artificial intelligence mightily struggles with nuance.

Even if it improves, foisting off ethical decisions onto a machine remains a somewhat horrifying thought.

Social critic Lewis Mumford offered a similar warning against offloading responsibility to technology in his essay “ Authoritarian and Democratic Technics”.