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George W. Bush and Barack Obama both use flying robots with missiles to hunt down and kill people they don't like.

This is a very good point. It's always good to be reminded that we're already living in the future.

That said, I feel like aothman is discussing real artificial intelligence, that is, an entity capable of making a conscious decision that it wants to, in this case, fire the missiles. If I had to guess, if predator drones gain the ability to "decide" for themselves whether or not to fire their missiles, it will be built on a system of complex rules, and not because they're "intelligent". Potayto, Potahto? Maybe. I'm not an AI researcher and I don't even come close to understanding human intelligence, but I feel like even if it is just a complex system of rules, it's at a much deeper level than we'll be able to simulate soon.




> It's always good to be reminded that we're already living in the future.

This is not a new phenomenon; the first use of autonomous killer robots was in 1943, in the form of acoustically guided torpedoes.


Well heck, if we're going to stretch the analogy why not a mouse trap?


Because nobody has ever been killed by a misguided mousetrap?


Bear trap, then.


They don't move around of their own accord, attempting to close with the target. Guided weapons do.




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