Dozens of artificial intelligence (AI) scientists and researchers from around the world, including several from the U.S., are boycotting a university that has opened up an AI research center where the research partner is a major arms manufacturer.
The scientists say a partnership like this could lead to deadly inventions used against the innocent:
"They will permit war to be fought faster and at a scale greater than ever before. They have the potential to be weapons of terror. Despots and terrorists could use them against innocent populations, removing any ethical restraints. This Pandora's box will be hard to close if it is opened."
The university being boycotted is the leading state-run science research university in South Korea, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). The university has 60 professors working on Artificial Intelligence.
You can read the AI developers' boycott statement for yourself.
And while the attention is on South Korea, what about DARPA funded AI robots in the United States?
They are getting faster, for sure. Meet Wildcat, which can run—that's right, it can run—up to 16 miles per hour.
