(Breaking Defense) Defense Secretary Ashton Carter is pushing hard for artificial intelligence — but the US military will “never” unleash truly autonomous killing machines, he pledged today.
“In many cases, and certainly whenever it comes to the application of force, there will never be true autonomy, because there'll be human beings (in the loop),” Carter told Sydney and fellow reporter John Harper as they flew home to Washington.
Carter's trip to Austin and San Francisco had been all about outreach to the information technology community. In particular,, he said, “we're making big investments” in autonomy, which is the centerpiece of Carter's Third Offset Strategy to retain America's high-tech edge. But, he emphasized, technology must operate within legal and ethical limits.
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