Pope, once a victim of AI-generated imagery, calls for treaty to regulate artificial intelligence; AP, December 14, 2023

NICOLE WINFIELD, AP ; Pope, once a victim of AI-generated imagery, calls for treaty to regulate artificial intelligence

"On a more basic level, he warned about the profound repercussions on humanity of automated systems that rank citizens or categorize them. In addition to the threats to jobs around the world that can be done by robots, Francis noted that such technology could determine the reliability of an applicant for a mortgage, the right of a migrant to receive political asylum or the chance of reoffending by someone previously convicted of a crime.

“Algorithms must not be allowed to determine how we understand human rights, to set aside the essential human values of compassion, mercy and forgiveness, or to eliminate the possibility of an individual changing and leaving his or her past behind,” he wrote."

Killer Robots Aren’t Science Fiction. A Push to Ban Them Is Growing.; The New York Times, December 17, 2022

Adam Satariano, Nick Cumming-Bruce and Rick Gladstone, The New York Times; Killer Robots Aren’t Science Fiction. A Push to Ban Them Is Growing.

A U.N. conference made little headway this week on limiting development and use of killer robots, prompting stepped-up calls to outlaw such weapons with a new treaty.

"It may have seemed like an obscure United Nations conclave, but a meeting this week in Geneva was followed intently by experts in artificial intelligence, military strategy, disarmament and humanitarian law.

The reason for the interest? Killer robots — drones, guns and bombs that decide on their own, with artificial brains, whether to attack and kill — and what should be done, if anything, to regulate or ban them.

Once the domain of science fiction films like the “Terminator” series and “RoboCop,” killer robots, more technically known as Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems, have been invented and tested at an accelerated pace with little oversight. Some prototypes have even been used in actual conflicts.

The evolution of these machines is considered a potentially seismic event in warfare, akin to the invention of gunpowder and nuclear bombs."