Robots Rule!

A piece on teaching just-war theory to robots . Kind of.

Military robots were once again in the news this month with headlines like “Corpse-eating robot” (Wired), “Robot . . . to eat all life on Earth” (The Register), and “Sniper Bot Refuels by consuming human bodies” (OhGizmo!). Such death-dealing robotic zombies would certainly seem to make the Governator-style T-800 Terminators seem like tame puppies.

A subsequent press release from the manufacturers, Cyclone Power Technologies and Robotic Technology Inc (RTI), set the record straight –- these robots will be strictly vegetarian. Cyclone announced that it had completed the first stage of development for a beta biomass engine system used to power RTI’s Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot (EATR™) –- a most unfortunate choice of name for a grass eater.
The press release goes on to point out that, “Desecration of the dead is a war crime under Article 15 of the Geneva Conventions, and is certainly not something sanctioned by DARPA, Cyclone or RTI.” But how are these autonomous robots to know the difference between battlefield dead and “twigs, grass clippings and wood chips?”

Ronald C. Arkin, director of the Mobile Robot Laboratory at Georgia Tech, may have the answer. He is designing ethical guidance software for battlefield robots under contract with the U.S. Army.

“My research hypothesis is that intelligent robots can behave more ethically in the battlefield than humans currently can,” says Dr. Arkin. “That’s the case I make.”

Whew. George Weigel’s job is still safe, I think: Our moral robots won’t need to read Tranquillitas Ordinis , but humans, less moral by nature, will still require it.

I, for one, join The Onion , in welcoming our new highly moral overlords: