百餘科技業領袖呼籲禁止“殺手機器人”

The founders of 116 robotics and artificial intelligence companies have called for a ban on the use of lethal autonomous weapons in the wake of the postponement of UN talks on regulating “killer robots”.

聯合國關於管制“殺手機器人”的會談延期之後，116家機器人和人工智能企業的創始人呼籲禁止使用致命自主武器。

Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and OpenAI, and Mustafa Suleyman, founder and head of applied AI at Google’s Deepmind, are among the signatories of an open letter warning that lethal autonomous weapons would permit “armed conflict to be fought on a scale greater than ever, and at timescales faster than humans can comprehend”.

SpaceX和OpenAI的創始人埃隆?馬斯克(Elon Musk)，以及谷歌(Google) DeepMind創始人之一、現負責DeepMind應用人工智能(applied AI)的穆斯塔法?蘇萊曼(Mustafa Suleyman)等人簽署了一封公開信，這封信警告說，致命自主武器會讓“武裝衝突的規模超過以往任何時候，時間跨度快到人類無法理解”。

“This new arms race has already begun in every sphere of the battlefield — air, at sea and on land,” said Toby Walsh, professor of AI at University of New South Wales and one of the signatories of the letter. “These autonomous weapons threaten to industrialise war and the way we kill people. If they become part of the military industrial complex they will end up being used against civilians.”

這封公開信的簽署者之一、新南威爾士大學(University of New South Wales)從事AI研究的教授託比?沃爾什(Toby Walsh)表示：“這場新的軍備競賽已然在戰場的各個領域——空、海、陸——展開了。這些自主武器有可能將戰爭和我們殺人的方式工業化。如果它們成爲‘軍工複合體’的一部分，最終它們將被用來攻擊平民。”

In December, 123 member nations of the UN’s review conference of the convention on conventional weapons agreed to begin formal discussions on autonomous weapons. Of these, 19 have already called for an outright ban. But the talks, which were due to begin on Monday, have been postponed as several member nations have not paid their financial contributions to the UN.

去年12月，聯合國《常規武器公約》審議大會的123個成員國同意開始正式討論自主武器。其中19個成員國已要求徹底禁止這種武器。但由於若干成員國尚未向聯合國繳納會費，因此原定於本週一開始的會議已被推遲。

The letter indicates regrets that the UN’s first meeting has been cancelled and urges all parties to double their efforts in advance of a planned November meeting. The authors of the letter said it was the first time that AI and robotics companies have taken a joint stance on the issue, although in 2015 a group of technology leaders called for a ban on autonomous weapons.

這封公開信對聯合國第一次會議被取消表示遺憾，並敦促各方在計劃好的11月會議之前加倍努力。公開信的作者們表示，這是AI企業和機器人企業在該問題上首次採取共同立場，儘管2015年一批科技企業領導人曾呼籲禁止自主武器。

The US, China and Israel are among nations rushing to develop autonomous weapons technology, which has the capability to independently compose and select particular courses of action without relying on the judgment of a human controller.

美國、中國和以色列等國正在積極開發自主武器技術，這種武器有能力獨立設計和選擇具體的作戰方案，而不依賴於人類操控者的判斷。

Advances in AI technology are making it possible to cede to computers many tasks long regarded as impossible to be undertaken by machines, including in modern warfare.

AI技術的進步使得許多長期以來被認爲不可能由機器完成的任務（包括現代作戰）可以交由電腦來完成。

But the adoption of the type of AI technology that featured in the Terminator film franchise, for instance, remains fraught with practical and ethical issues and has alarmed experts.

但是，某些類型的AI技術（比如《終結者》(Terminator)系列電影中展現的那種）的採用，在現實和倫理層面仍問題重重，並令專家們感到擔憂。

“We should not lose sight of the fact that, unlike other potential manifestations of AI that still remain in the realm of science fiction, autonomous weapons systems are on the cusp of development right now,” said Ryan Gariepy, founder of Clearpath Robotics, who was the first of the 116 company founders to sign the letter.

Clearpath Robotics創始人瑞恩?加里皮(Ryan Gariepy)表示：“我們不應忽視這一事實，即與其他仍停留在科幻小說中的潛在AI技術不同，自主武器系統現在馬上就要開發出來了。”加里皮是116位公司創始人裏第一個簽署公開信的人。

“The development of lethal autonomous weapons systems is unwise, unethical and should be banned on an international scale.”

“發展致命自主武器系統(LAWS)是不明智、不道德的，應該在全世界被禁止。”

Some autonomous weapons systems have already been developed, including a robot sentry gun designed by a South Korean arms manufacturer Dodaam Systems. Its Super aEgis II machine gun is capable of identifying, tracking and destroying a target at a great distance without human operators.

一些自主武器系統已經開發完成，包括由韓國武器製造商Dodaam Systems設計的機槍哨兵機器人。這家公司的Super aEgis II機槍能夠在沒有人類操作者的情況下識別、追蹤和摧毀遠程目標。

However, the company has told media that all of its customers so far have asked for safeguards to be embedded in the robot that requires human operators to authorise any lethal shooting.

但該公司向媒體表示，到目前爲止，所有客戶都要求給這種機器人嵌入保險措施，要求任何致命射擊都需取得人類操作者授權。

Defence experts say autonomous weapons systems have the potential to save lives on the battlefield. Israel’s Iron Dome anti-rocket system has been credited with shooting down scores of rockets fired from Gaza into Israel. Iron Dome uses technology that is programmed to respond automatically to threatening artillery or rockets.

防務專家表示自主武器系統有可能在戰場上拯救生命。以色列的“鐵穹”(Iron Dome)反火箭彈系統因擊落數十枚從加沙射向以色列的火箭彈而受到讚譽。“鐵穹”所使用的技術被程序設定爲自動響應威脅性火炮或火箭彈。

The UK opposes banning autonomous weapons systems. A US department of defence report last year recommended accelerating exploitation of autonomous technology to “realise the potential military value and to remain ahead of adversaries who also will exploit its operational benefits”.

英國反對禁止自主武器系統。去年美國國防部的一份報告建議加快自主武器技術的開發，以“實現潛在的軍事價值，並（讓我們）繼續領先於那些也將對其作戰優勢加以利用的對手”。