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Title: Russia Building 'Terrorist Killing' Robo-Cop
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URL Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapo ... ng-terrorist-killing-robo-cop/
Published: May 19, 2013
Author: Kenneth Rapoza
Post Date: 2013-05-19 23:12:27 by A K A Stone
Keywords: None
Views: 532
You might have thought the world of lethal autonomous robots would be sole be here in the United States, or Japan. Both countries are working on their own version of robotic soldiers. And now Russia has joined their ranks. Only their robo-cop has terrorists in its cross-hairs. Russian techies are developing a series of robots that are designed specifically to do battle in terrorist camps and neutralize terrorists in the act, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin told Ria Novosti newswire on Friday. The robo-cop will also be used to aid in evacuations from the scene of a terrorist attack, he said. Other anti-terrorist tech includes systems that can see through walls and engage shooters at long distances, he said. Rogozin did not say when robo-cop might be deployed by the country’s security and intelligence services. The technology is still new. Most of it requires humans to control it from afar, as is the case with drone aircraft. But the autonomous robots Russia hopes to develop will one day, probably within a generation, be able to make shoot-to-kill decisions on its own. It’ll be on step below a full fledged cyborg. Human Rights Watch (HRW) criticized the lethal two-legged weaponry in a Nov. 2012 report called “Losing Humanity: The Case Against Killer Robots“. In the report, HRW said that “such revolutionary weapons would not be consistent with international humanitarian law and would increase the risk of death or injury to civilians during armed conflict. A preemptive prohibition on their development and use is needed.” Fully autonomous robots acting without human guidance do not exist in the battlefield now; not in the U.S. and surely not in Russia. But they are being developed by several countries and Russia, with its space age, high tech talent, does not want to be too far behind their American peers. Some experts predict that robot warriors could be operational in 20 to 30 years. The lobbying efforts of HRW landed on the desks of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council this year and on April 9, the Council filed a report to the Special Rapporteur of the U.N. taking the NGOs line on the matter. “It should be recalled that in certain respects technology far exceeds human ability,” the report stated. “Technology is developing exponentially, and it is impossible to predict the future confidently. As a result, it is almost impossible to determine how close we are to fully autonomous robots that are ready for use.” Regardless, Russia has joined the list of around five countries already developing so called Lethal Autonomous Robotics, or LARs. They won’t be the last to join the future.
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