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This article comes from the official account of Wechat: SF Chinese (ID:kexuejiaodian), author: SF

Applying AI to war will bring terrible and uncontrollable consequences. If AI really declares war on mankind, we probably have no chance of winning.

/ tr. by Stephen Kelly (Stephen Kelly)

Translation | Li Shijie

Editor | Chen Qiang

The original article is published in Science focus, No. 12, 2023.

The latest sci-fi film AI Creator (The Creator) is about an existential battle between human beings and artificial intelligence (AI). This sci-fi theme is not really novel, but the key difference from the classic sci-fi movie Terminator is that the future depicted in this film is no longer a distant fantasy, but is getting closer and closer to scientific facts.

For example, in recent months, we have seen many warnings that AI poses an "existential threat" to human beings. Not only will AI one day be able to write a better article than this column, but it may also lead to terrible and uncontrollable consequences in the field of war.

If AI can manipulate weapons independently, obviously, the most worrying problem is that AI may be able to manipulate weapons independently in the future. Paul Scharre, author of Four Battlegrounds: Power in the Age of Arti Intelligence cial Intelligence and vice president of the Center for New American Security, cited the "AlphaDog fighting ght" organized by the Defense Advanced Research projects Agency a few years ago to illustrate the seriousness of the problem. " Alpha Dog fight is a man-machine air combat simulation competition, but in the competition, AI easily beat experienced human pilots.

"not only did the AI beat the human pilots by a score of 15 to 0, but it also demonstrated skills that were beyond the reach of humans," Schal said. "for example, it can fire with very high precision."

However, giving AI the power to make life-and-death choices also raises a number of disturbing questions. For example, what if AI made a mistake and accidentally killed a civilian? "it would be a war crime," Mr. Schal said, "and the difficulty is that no one may be responsible at all."

If AI is used for tactical development and intelligence analysis, however, in the near future, AI is most likely to be used for tactical development and intelligence analysis in the field of war. "AI can process information more effectively and improve the operational efficiency of the army," Schal said. I believe that the army will become more and more inclined to hand over decision-making power to AI, because the battlefield is a cruel place to compete. If you fail to seize a fleeting opportunity, you will be at a huge disadvantage. "

Schal believes that this could lead to an AI arms race. "some scholars even put forward the 'battlefield singularity' hypothesis," he said. "that is, the decision-making speed of AI will exceed the speed of human understanding, and human beings will actually have to hand over all decision-making power on the battlefield to AI."

Of course, in this case, human beings may lose control of AI, or even be attacked by AI. As a result, the United States has developed a policy that requires human participation in any decision relating to nuclear weapons.

Shahr even believes that if the worst happens and AI really declares war on mankind, we may not stand a chance.

"I mean, can chimpanzees defeat humans in war?" He added, for example, "not only did AlphaGo beat the world go champion, but even in terms of the game process, AlphaGo was significantly stronger than the top human players. And this change happened so fast that just seven or eight years ago, this situation would have been unthinkable."

"We are building more and more powerful AI systems and applying them in various fields, but they are also becoming more and more difficult to understand and control. I think if we can really build machines that are smarter than us, then we will face a lot of problems."

Conclusion therefore, according to the current rate of development, if AI is out of control, human beings may face a great threat.

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