https://gizmodo.com/usaf-artificial-inte...1850502251
EXCERPTS: During a defense conference hosted in London, a Colonel Tucker “Cinco” Hamilton, the chief of AI test and operations with the USAF, told a very interesting story about a recent “simulated test” involving an AI-equipped drone. Tucker told the conference’s audience that, during the course of the simulation—the purpose of which was to train the software to target enemy missile installations—the AI program randomly went rogue, rebelled against its operator, and proceeded to “kill” him. Hamilton said:
[...] Hamilton seemed to be saying the USAF had effectively turned a corner and put us squarely in the territory of dystopian nightmare—a world where the government was busy training powerful AI software which, someday, would surely go rogue and kill us all.
[...] But, from the outset, Hamilton’s story seemed...weird. ... Sure enough, not long after the story blew up in the press, the Air Force came out with an official rebuttal of the story.
“The Department of the Air Force has not conducted any such AI-drone simulations and remains committed to ethical and responsible use of AI technology,” an Air Force Spokesperson, Ann Stefanek, quipped to multiple news outlets. “It appears the colonel’s comments were taken out of context and were meant to be anecdotal.”
Hamilton, meanwhile, began a retraction tour, talking to multiple news outlets and confusingly telling everybody that this wasn’t an actual simulation but was, instead, a “thought experiment.” (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPTS: During a defense conference hosted in London, a Colonel Tucker “Cinco” Hamilton, the chief of AI test and operations with the USAF, told a very interesting story about a recent “simulated test” involving an AI-equipped drone. Tucker told the conference’s audience that, during the course of the simulation—the purpose of which was to train the software to target enemy missile installations—the AI program randomly went rogue, rebelled against its operator, and proceeded to “kill” him. Hamilton said:
[...] Hamilton seemed to be saying the USAF had effectively turned a corner and put us squarely in the territory of dystopian nightmare—a world where the government was busy training powerful AI software which, someday, would surely go rogue and kill us all.
[...] But, from the outset, Hamilton’s story seemed...weird. ... Sure enough, not long after the story blew up in the press, the Air Force came out with an official rebuttal of the story.
“The Department of the Air Force has not conducted any such AI-drone simulations and remains committed to ethical and responsible use of AI technology,” an Air Force Spokesperson, Ann Stefanek, quipped to multiple news outlets. “It appears the colonel’s comments were taken out of context and were meant to be anecdotal.”
Hamilton, meanwhile, began a retraction tour, talking to multiple news outlets and confusingly telling everybody that this wasn’t an actual simulation but was, instead, a “thought experiment.” (MORE - missing details)