The scary thing is that this bill does not limit use of AI logic. As of now, the initial roll out of killer robots is human monitored. BUT the bill does not seem to be limited to only human controlled or human monitored robots and allows for expansion into artificial intelligence (AI logic) controlled robots to make an on-field decision whether to kill or not kill a human. So imagine a random person's (or group of people's) computer program choosing to kill you or not kill you.
What we think/assume (evident from many news outlets and forums like these) - the conflict or fight among religious or cultural groups of Islam, Zionists, Christianity, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists or the conflict between western and non-western nations is critical.
The reality that seems to be - The above conflicts are only critical in the short term. The longer term more important conflict is probably machines versus humans at every level of the society. As "George Orwellian" or Terminator type far fetched sci-fi this seems to be, this is much closer to reality than what many of us realize and is already happening. The more important conflict is the common masses (puppets like us) versus the corporate+government nexus with militaristic bends. This nexus is essentially all the same as much as we like to claim that one of them (zionist, hindutva, right wing christian, Islamic ... or ... Western: Non-Western) is worse than the other.
1.
Labor take over - Machines are replacing more of humans - started with automated industrial tasks, then transportation (driverless cars), white collar professional services (accounting, legal and even medical diagnosis tasks are taken over now). We are now getting into a phase where computer programmer tasks are taken over with latest AI logic being able to write its own code. Essentially a society in the near future that is highly dependent on AI (and cannot revert back to same level without disruptions without AI)
2.
Legal rulings - This is a landmark ruling by San Francisco and will set a precedent for other cities and countries, not just the US. Let's face it, if this proves viable even countries like China or India or Iran or Saudi will be equally eager to implement this just like Israel or India. As much as many here portray this as an evil deed by war mongering US (which is true), all governments will be culpable to using this when proven and when given a chance.
3.
Lethal abilities - Started with human controlled drones, then human monitored drones with some level of AI. Now we have reached a stage where many drones and remote missile striking abilities are fully controlled by AI logic alone. Image/Video processing of real time satellite data through neural network backed AI logic to make "human-less" decisions to strike remote targets. I remember reading a couple of articles stating nuclear capabilities in some sectors/countries are getting to human monitored (NOT human controlled but a step closer to AI controlled which is human monitored). If it goes at the same rate as drones, we are closer to nuclear capabilities being AI controlled with occasional human monitor/intervention.
Financial Control and Power - Started with more of tech controlled big finance decisions. This grew to tech controlled market decisions which then grew to tech dominated and controlled financial decisions. Now we have reached a stage where a significant trading volume (more than 80% I think) in every major stock/commodity/futures market is tech controlled and most of this is AI logic operating without humans. This was taken to another level by the coupling of crypto to major markets (BTC into futures market in 2018 and so forth. Crypto market now is even more dominated by AI programs running independent of humans and has enhanced the power of AI to disrupt global financial markets. If Coinbase, Binance, Kraken all fail at a similar level as FTX did, then you can guarantee it will drag most markets down.
There are some initiatives (like
https://www.stopkillerrobots.org/) that hope to stop or at least stall this. But sadly none of this seems to have enough attention from people. For most of the general population, unless you are in general tech or defense tech know-how, all of the above still seem way too far fetched to warrant any serious discussion. People still feel the more important conflicts are based on religious/cultural differences but these are bound to be fast outdated soon over next 1-3 decades.
Disclaimer - I'm NOT an anti-tech person nor a doomsday scaremonger. I'm actually a tech enthusiast myself who has followed the evolution or neural networks, AI, Web 3.0, and Crypto. I'm also an active crypto investor. I do recognize that technology is essential for human evolution (most of humanity's accomplishments impossible without or tech progress).
Above disclaimer being said, we have now reached a major inflection point (fork in the road if you will) thanks to perfect storm aka a nexus of five factors evolving to support each other. #1 - Govt/militaristic adoption of human-less AI infused tech, #2 - Evolution of AI tech to "think and decide" without human input, #3 - Evolution of AI self replication (much more advanced today than what people realize), #4 - AI control of many human society's foundations like economy/labor/policy, #5 - Legal frameworks enhancing AI power (at the expense of human power).
There has been no precedent in history where all of the five factors above evolved and converged like this. As these five factors get more powerful, it will spell more danger for all of the "aam aadmi" people like us. But like I said, sadly all of this still only sounds like far fetched sci-fi for most people and will continue to do so, probably until it is all way too advanced thanks to the policies backed by the corporate+govt+rich elites.
