This is the second, of a hopefully weekly series, that explores Artificial Intelligence. The idea is to share with you articles I found informative or interesting and to promote discussion.

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Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD), take center stage once again in the world of AI.

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This week we have Killer Robots Drones!

Heather M. Roff and P.W. Singer point out in their piece featured on wired.com that The Next President Will Decide the Fate of Killer Robots—and the Future of War.

This reminds me about a book a read a few summers ago titled The Violence of Peace: America's Wars in the Age of Obama by Stephen Carter.

In his book he address the concept of just war theory and points out how Obama “[t]he man who many considered the peace candidate in the last election was transformed into a war president”.

Dr. Carter, who “is an American law professor at Yale University”, “delves into the implications of the military philosophy Obama has adopted over his first two years in office”.

This philosophy is strongly centered on drone attacks of key leaders in the Middle East.

If my memory serves me correctly, Carter goes on to explain some of the questionable ethics involved in what amounts to an assassination and how the drones have been used to take out U.S. Citizen defectors who are put to death without legal trials.

The Future of War article points out that:

“In 2012, the Obama administration created Department of Defense Directive 3000.09, which sets policy on how the Pentagon handles the questions of this new technology. However, the directive has a 5-year limit, meaning that Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump will need to decide what the US policy on killer robots will be within the first year of their term.”

And this matters because “the US military is working on at least 21 different projects to increase the autonomous capacities of weapons systems in war”.

I live in North Texas, near Dallas, where recently the Dallas PD decided to used a robot to kill the man who authorities say fatally shot five Dallas police officers.

This concerns me.

I know there is a big steemit segment into anarchy, but I am not exactly one of them.

However, that doesn’t mean I don’t question things like this either…

Although, it wasn’t AI, the concept is similar in the sense of having a non-human take the life of a human.

I don’t condone police killings.

I don’t condone authorities usurping power of the legal system either.

The WIRED article concludes with:

“The next president can’t avoid the challenge of robotics and war, but he or she may be able to turn it into an opportunity. He or she will have to make a decision about US policies towards this new technology. Will the decisions on armed robots be a thoughtful, strategic one, or will the nation just operate on auto-pilot?”

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Next up we see Robot Sailboats

And if you didn’t know, “At least 20 companies are chasing the possibly quixotic dream of a self-driving car in Silicon Valley. But self-sailing boats are already a real business.”

This article paints a picture of how these self-sailing boats can be used for good through research and data collection.

But it doesn’t take much to imagine weaponized versions…

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One not so scary headline: ONCE DRONES GET ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, THEY’LL RULE THE WORLD

Come on folks...

Enough with the FUD.

This article actually just uses the clickbait title to tell how although “drones remain a fringe technology”, but “once drones come loaded with sophisticated AI and voice-recognition technology, humans won’t have to guide them.”

Therefore, “In other words, once drones start learning, they’ll learn fast—like a dog that could instantly know what every other dog already knows.”

That is the positive article about AI.

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Last week I mentioned how the age of robot writers is upon us.

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To me this is not surprising to see that Ai writing has made its way to steemit.

@razvanelulmarin had an excellent article @msgivings, frequent trending author, has been EXPOSED for plagiarism. The question remains: Is this what Steemit wants to be? explaining what had happened.

And as a reflection of how the steemitcommunity took it, @msgivings last published article was hit with over 100 flags.

The Ai writing article, the age of robot writers is upon us, is from 2015, so this has been in the works for a while now.

Also I found this gem of a post by @samether :
Conversation with ALICE [featuring new AI author]

As a writer and content creator I have been interested in this development since it first came on my radar.

Am I afraid?

Hell no.

Ai can make content, even viral content, but humans have bias towards supporting humans and so there is one point in our favor.

Also as a creative mind, I am going to produce and create regardless of what else it out there.

If I used excuses, there is no reason for me to write.

Kinda like James Altucher mentioned the other day:

“Books suck. I can’t believe anyone would write a book. I go in the bookstore and there are about 10,000 books. Who reads them? I will tell you. Nobody. I have rarely seen anyone read a book. People do it in hiding. Like in the bathroom.”

The comment on @razvanelulmarin‘s article by @donkeypong shows the desire for “posting original content” on steemit.

Therefore I shall create.

But this leads me to a question that I have asked before, Does Steemit Work for You or Do You Work for Steemit?.

Bonus:

How blockchain will disrupt your business is a great article for people new to the topic.

It gives an easy to understand introduction to blockchain technology and then suggests ways blockchain will impact the future of various industries.

The Blockchain: An Experiment in Governance Without Power is also worth checking out.

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Written by Michael Paine

Please follow me, @stragerarray, to keep up to date with my other fiction, non-fiction, and other post.

Please check out the previous discussions on AI:

Self-Driving Cars and Changing Laws
Here I explore how Self-Driving Cars, with the addition of AI, will cause society the need to reshape and rethink legal issues associated with driving.

AI, UBI and TMI:
This article looks at the question of future employment and how it will and won’t be impacted by AI.

Artificial Intelligence Beat Report - September 6th, 2016:
We take a look at some areas that AI is not up to speed, leaving the door open for developments and ways for humans to remain relevant.

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Hey y’all for more great content check out my friends:

(All robot images from steemd.com)

@stellabelle	@ericvancewalton	@cristi	@micheletrainer	@mctiller
@lukeofkondor	@soulsistashakti	@mindover	@mars-eve	@patrick-g
@kaylinart	@romanskv	@the-alien	@razvanelulmarin	@strangerarray
@lat-nayar	@ann-hoy	@future24	@julia26