CT News: How Will AI Affect Future Cyber Wars?

What kinds of applications will militaries find for AI in coming years and decades? Well that is a question that is on many technologists' mind as methods for creating advanced AI systems continue to progress.

This year's Munich Security Conference kicked off on Friday and set the tone for what researchers are going to be working on this year. The question of cyber warfare and how exactly artificial intelligence would be involved was heavily under discussion there.

Leading the debate was Estonian president Kersti Kaljulaid.

Many may not know this but her country was the victim of a massive hacking attack that was widely blamed on Russia.

“I have been really worried as an Estonian--Estonia is a digital state compared to many others--that our capacity to internationally agree and regulate for technological development has been extremely low," Kaljulaid told said. "We haven’t managed to do any progress, for example, even on cyber issues”.

Members of the public present in the audience said they are worried about robot soldiers, and self-piloted weaponised drones. NATO's former Secretary General Anders Fogh Rassmussen said it's a legitimate concern.

“The use of robots and artificial intelligence within the military might make the whole world more unstable. For that reason, I think we should elaborate an international and legally binding treaty to prohibit the production and use of what has been called autonomous lethal weapons".

Lets look at this closely and break it apart. Rassmussen said that we should prepare for the unexpected as this technology progresses. That seems like a pretty valid prediction right there. Furthermore he would like to see a treaty to prohibit the production and use of autonomous leathal weapons.

In theory this seems like a good idea as well but can we honestly expect governments to not conduct secret research in this field if it was to be made illegal? Couldn't that be a premise for a future false flag attack or pre-emptive strike on a country? I would be cautious when it came to moving forward on that reccomendation.

In an open letter to the UN last year, Robotics experts also called for a ban on developing so-called "killer robots" and warned of a new arms race. Earlier this week, the US Director of National Intelligence published the annual Worldwide Threat Assessment, which expressed concern about the "potential for surprise" in the cyber realm.

Clearly this topic of AI cyber warfare is going to heat up in the near future. We need to keep our eye on the ball here as reality could take a parallel track to a sci-fi movie like the Terminator if we don't pay attention and get organized on directing this development.

What do you guys think about the potential for increased AI and cyber warfare in the near future? Is there merit here or are we just being paranoid?

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